


Sleeping with Galra

by WhiteCabaret



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Asexual Hunk (Voltron), Blow Jobs, Cloaca, Diverges from canon between seasons 4 & 5, Fingerfucking, Galra Keith (Voltron), Intersex Keith (Voltron), M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Mpreg, Pheromones, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-01-24 08:07:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 47,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21334966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhiteCabaret/pseuds/WhiteCabaret
Summary: Even after finding out that he's part Galra, the physiology of the species still remains a mystery to Keith. He doesn't expect it, but a chance encounter gives him more than he bargained for when it comes to learning how exactly he's wired.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 36
Kudos: 306





	1. Chance Encounter

Keith wrestled his jacket off and threw it onto the floor before falling back into his bed and writhing in the sheets. Sweat dripped down his face and soaked the collar and armpits of his shirt. His groin ached, but not with an erection. It just… hurt… like the worst torn muscle of his life. His stomach hurt like someone shot him right in the gut point blank. But none of this was anything new.

Ever since he was thirteen years old and hit puberty, once a month Keith got horny. Well… what _he_ thought it was to be horny. Uninhibited moans filled the dark room. Keith grit his teeth and clawed at his skin. He wanted desperately to escape his own body. Anything to make the pain stop. Maybe plunging himself into the pool would help bring down the fever.

Keith staggered out of his room, but no sooner did the door close that a whiff of something in the air caught his attention. The hairs on his neck stood on end. What was that? That scent… Christ, that scent. He needed to find it and throw himself into whatever it was. Stumbling through the halls, Keith looked like he was drunk or even fatally wounded, sans the blood and gore. Gloved hands clutched either arm as he trembled violently. The scent got stronger. Every inhale was like a spear piercing his limbs, embedding itself in muscle, tissue, and nerves.

The trail ended outside Lance’s room. Keith’s aggressive door pounding disrupted the peaceful silence of the castle-ship’s nocturnal cycle. He didn’t care who he disturbed.

Lance’s door opened only a few seconds later with a hissing _whoosh_, revealing the Paladin halfway through pulling on his clothes, his eyes glazed over with sleep and mixed with vague alarm. When he realized that the aggressive knocking came from Keith, and that no one else was scrambling to wake up, he paused, confused. “Keith?” he asked, squinting at the other teen. “Is there an emergency or...?”

Keith grabbed the front of Lance’s wrinkled shirt, yanked him forward, and took a deep long sniff. Fuck, it was _Lance_ that smelled so good. It wasn’t even a scent he could describe as being similar to anything else. It just… was what it was. And it impaled him clean through the bone like a steel blade. Ragged breathing and shoving got them both inside Lance’s room, the door _whooshing_ shut, and Keith suddenly had his mouth on tan lips in an all-consuming kiss.

Lance’s eyes went wide. He put his hands on Keith’s shoulders, pushing him off and leaning his head back until their mouths disconnected. “Whoa, hey, what are you doing?!” he gasped. Lance was halfway convinced he was still sleeping. Maybe this was a dream and he just imagined getting out of bed?

“What the fuck does it look like I’m doing?” Keith’s voice sounded gruff with hormones and desperation. He grappled with Lance’s hands so he could get at the other teen again. He pushed until Lance was up against the wall, wrists pinned, and Keith started kissing feverishly at his neck and shoulders.

Lance gasped, still unsure what exactly was going on. Keith overpowered him easily, especially as sleep-addled as he was, and the lips and teeth at the crook of his neck were not helping him think any straighter. “Since when was this a thing?” he ended up asking, voice straining to eke out into the extremely small space between them.

“Since now.” Which was technically true. Keith resisted the crush he had on Lance when his mind was clear, but with his hormones in overdrive and the source of the intoxicating scent now discovered, he wasn’t going to fight it. As of right now, Lance was the only person in the entire universe who could cure Keith of his personal plague. God, he just wanted to crawl inside this kid’s skin. Keith wrestled off his shirt and threw it onto the floor with more force than necessary. Pale skin glimmered with sweat. The heat boiling in his veins was tangible. He pressed flush up against Lance, joining their mouths again, and forced his tongue inside this time.

Lance made a choked noise when Keith shoved his tongue down this throat. It was all so unceremonious and forceful, totally unlike how Lance ever imagined Keith might be in moments like these. Not to say he _minded_, but he definitely didn’t expect it. Keith was pressing up against him, like he was insisting on being touched. Experimentally, long fingers found themselves brushing Keith’s sides, finding hesitant purchase on his hips and then trailing up his torso as he tried his best to reciprocate the kiss, even though it felt like Keith was trying to suffocate him with his mouth.

Keith’s mouth tore away from Lance’s so that a high-pitched groan could escape. His cheeks turned dark pink and his entire body shuddered. Those long tan fingers felt like they were peeling his skin off in thin ribbons with just those feathery touches. His heart hammered away inside his rib cage. Damn it, this was torture and bliss in the same maddening moment.

Lance pulled his hands back, eyes still wide and more than a little bit confused. Keith just seemed _so_ turned on, and Lance hadn’t even done anything, really. “Is it okay that I’m touching you?” he asked, breathless and unsure.

“It’s fine,” Keith gasped. He even frowned, frustrated that Lance stopped. He gripped the front of that shirt again and yanked. “You need to fuck me. Right now.”

“_Fuck you_?” Lance echoed, his mouth running dry. _Damn_, he really was not prepared for this. His heart was going a million miles a minute and he could feel all the blood drop right out of his head and rush south. The gears in his brain practically screeched to a stop. “Um. Uh. Do you have a condom?”

“No.” Keith jerked Lance away from the wall and spun them both around in the direction of the bed instead. His own erection was building and they’d be in danger if something wasn’t done about it quickly. He shoved Lance down into the bed, crawled over him, and started tugging on his pants like them being on Lance’s body was the biggest offense he ever suffered.

_Well alright then_. Lance might have been worried about how forceful Keith was being if it wasn’t so damn _hot._ Breathing shallow, he scrambled up onto his elbows after practically rebounding off the bed thanks to the power behind Keith’s push. The other teen was struggling with Lance’s pants, so Lance reached down and helpfully unbuttoned them, his fingers brushing against Keith’s as the other boy insistently kept trying to rip his pants off even as Lance took care of them.

The metal spikes buried themselves deeper and deeper into Keith’s bones. He wanted them yanked out. He wanted to be rid of the searing pain and heat consuming his body. Their fingers touched and it was like acid and sandpaper tearing away at his flesh. Like his nails being slowly pulled off one-by-one. Keith felt as if he couldn’t breathe, couldn’t swallow, couldn’t speak. Lance’s pants landed on the floor and his own pair soon joined them. Both boys had fully pitched tents. Keith hurried to get the campers out in the open.

Lance shivered, simultaneously concerned by and helplessly turned on by Keith’s aggressiveness. Sensing that Keith just needed to be paid attention to, he shifted away from him for just a moment, dodging his underwear being removed, and grabbed Keith by the shoulders, switching them around so he was the one pushing Keith down into the sheets now, onto his stomach. He licked his lips, unsure, but ended up just going for it, rubbing his clothed length against Keith’s ass as he leaned over him to start biting and licking at the other teen’s shoulder and neck, just like Keith had been insistently doing to him before. His hand found steady purchase pushing Keith down and keeping him still on top of his back, between his shoulder blades.

White hot flashed across Keith’s vision. The high-pitched moan sounded again right when he landed on the bed. Every touch from Lance was like salt in a wound. Heat washed in waves through his muscles. Lance’s smell… Lance’s intoxicating smell. It was driving Keith up the wall. How did Lance get himself to smell like that? Every added ounce and pound of weight drew a gasp or a groan. Keith squirmed. This was great, but not what his body demanded. He rolled his hips backwards, rubbing his ass eagerly against Lance’s arousal, begging wordlessly that it do even more.

Lance groaned, his whole body tensing up when Keith rutted back against him. He fantasized about this before, maybe once or twice or ten times, and what he was seeing before him was more lewd and borderline pornographic than anything his mind ever conjured up. Keith, panting and sweating and flushed red, hips propped up and ass presented in the air. If only he could take a picture. Lance was not at all an expert in this sort of thing, but he had an idea of what came next. Without anything to work with, he slicked his fingers up using his own mouth, and then carefully slipped one inside.

Keith’s mouth opened wide, but not a single sound came out. A silent, suffocated scream. His insides spasmed and immediately clenched around Lance’s finger, trying to pull it in deeper. Keith clawed at the wall. This was it. The thing his body craved. He was so fucking close to finally getting it after all these years. He arched his back and rolled his hips in an attempt to make himself as enticing as possible.

“Keith,” Lance breathed, sounding for all the world like he was taken aback by the other boy’s behavior, but unable to keep the husky grit and breathless interest out of his voice. By the time a second finger joined his first, he could feel his own length twitching with interest every time Keith’s spine bent in a way Lance didn’t even think possible. “One second,” he gasped, once Keith started getting impatient and started trying to fuck himself on Lance’s fingers. “Almost.”

“Now, Lance!” growled Keith and slammed his palm on the wall over the bed. “Hurry up! I can’t… H-Hurry!” By now, the scorching heat that consumed his entire body collected in the pit of his stomach. He felt nauseous the longer he went without Lance’s dick inside him. Beads of sweat dripped down his face and rolled across his back. Splotchy fevered patches sprung up on his lower belly, the small of his back, his ass cheeks, and between his thighs. His own erection was painfully stiff and dripping heavily with pre-cum onto the sheets.

Lance jumped when Keith banged on the wall. “Okay!” he yelped, hastily scrambling his way up onto his knees after sliding his fingers out. He didn’t even know if he prepared Keith correctly or enough, but he didn’t particularly want to see what would happen if he made Keith wait any longer. He had to grab Keith’s hips to stop them from moving, practically fighting against the rolls and twitches that wracked the other teen’s waiting body. Finally, after some forcible stilling, Lance’s length pushed inside, and he gasped and shuddered at the immediate tightness.

Keith’s chin tucked into his chest as a loud, pitched groan spilled out of him. “Nyyyh! Ghhhn! Yes!” The sensation was so powerful, he couldn’t even see straight. Keith’s nails raked down the wall until landing in the sheets where they pulled violent wrinkles into the fabric. Drool glistened his lips and dripped down his chin. Obviously, this was a great first step, but it wasn’t enough. Ever impatient, Keith started rolling his hips and forcing his ass further down onto Lance’s cock.

Spurred on by Keith’s reaction, Lance slid his hips forward until he was seated into Keith to the hilt. He had to pause for a moment, just gasping his breath back and staring. Keith was a mess, desperate and slick with a sheen of sweat, and Lance’s entire body was set on fire by the way he was groaning and moving. His hands tightened their purchase, gripping hard at Keith’s hips so he could sync up their rhythms. He started slow, but Keith was insistent and seemingly impossible to please, so Lance quickly started to thrust harder and faster, trying to find the pace and intensity that would finally satisfy the other teen.

Every thrust earned an animalistic grunt or hiss from Keith. He was a tough customer to please, but if Lance really was failing to satisfy, Keith would have let him know by now. He buried his knees into the mattress in order to ground himself against the intensity of Lance pounding into him. The entire scene was raw, loud, lustful, and powerful. Keith still felt the sensation of steel blades slicing between his bones, but it was coupled with an insane hormonal satisfaction the likes of which he never felt before. If sex was the answer, he should have been doing it with anybody he could get his hands on way sooner. …Except nobody ever smelled like Lance before. The other teen’s scent was the final tipping point. And now, in the pique of their unbridled fucking, Keith found himself drowning in the scent all around him, multiplied by Lance’s own sexually physical exertion.

If Lance had any reservations still about this seemingly random and out of character screwing Keith had come to his room and demanded out of the blue, they were all but thrown out the window now. Fucking Keith down into his mattress as hard and as fast as he could manage was better than _anything_ he could have ever imagined. Words ran dry on his tongue, only appreciative moaning and ragged panting managing to spill over his lips. Keith’s erection looked painful when Lance saw it from the front, so he decided to slip one hand under the two of them and take it into his hand, stroking in time with the thrusts that Lance was free to fully dictate, overpowering Keith until he was just making unintelligible noises with his mouth gaped open. His other hand, unable to hold Keith’s hips by itself, instead decided to get a handful of the other teen’s ass, long fingers digging into soft flesh.

Keith nearly shrieked and threw his head back as far as it would go in this position. The friction from Lance’s stroking hand ignited a fire in his groin that was far more intense than when he masturbated by himself. Not only was it someone else doing it _to him,_ but it was coupled with all the other sensations assaulting his body right now. Keith yearned to be filled so the pain would finally stop. Everything would go back to normal and he’d finally think straight again.

“Feel good?” Lance asked, voice strained. Keith’s head tossed back was enticing. Lance’s free hand trailed its way up Keith’s back to find itself tangled in long hair, keeping Keith’s back bent in a beautiful curve.

“N-No, it sucks,” Keith drolled, not losing an ounce of his sarcasm even in the heat of fucking the other teen. He’d have given Lance one of his arched eyebrow expressions if his face wasn’t preoccupied with gasping and panting wildly. He hissed softly when Lance grabbed his hair, but he didn’t fight it.

Lance rolled his eyes. If Keith was still lucid enough to be a smart alec, maybe Lance wasn’t going hard enough. He tugged on Keith’s hair, his other hand pumping faster, his thumb laid along the top of Keith’s length and pressing down into sensitive spots. He tried to move his hips faster. Blue eyes caught sight of Keith pulling rivets into the sheets, and he wondered briefly if Keith would be scratching up his back if he was flipped over. Did Keith even like stuff like that? Experimentally, he pulled Keith even more into a back-bend and then leaned over, taking a bit skin on the crook of Keith’s neck where the base of it met his shoulder into his mouth. He started to bite and suck on the little pale patch, welling up a dark mark under the ministrations of his lips.

“Ghn!” Keith actually winced at the extra yank to his hair and the forceful bend to his spine. The hormonal pain wracking his body was bad enough. He didn’t need Lance piling more on top, thanks. And then the extra attention paid to his weeping length sent jolts all through his limbs and made him spasm under the other teen. He felt pressure slowly building in his lower belly and knew he was getting close. Lance suddenly bit him. Keith let out an aroused yowl and came all over the sheets.

“Shit,” Lance gasped, feeling like his insides were being tied into knots. That noise was just too attractive. The way Keith twisted and bent in all directions was hot. The way he spasmed and twitched under Lance sent daggers of arousal shooting through his nerves. He didn’t think he was close until he suddenly felt it come up on him like a tidal wave, searing heat filling Keith up before Lance could even think about pulling out.

And there it was. That was the thing Keith’s body coveted more than food and water. The rush struck him and he made a sound of a mixture between the yowl and the high-pitched groan. His eyes widened, he clenched around the Lance to keep him inside, and he nearly tore the sheets in two. Almost instantly, the searing heat and agonizing pain left his body. A wave of relief washed over him from head-to-toe. Keith actually sighed. He unclenched from around Lance’s dick after a few minutes, his body making sure it got what it ultimately wanted, and then he slumped down into the bed looking nearly seconds away from passing out.

Lance gasped, his own body becoming boneless. Through the post-sex haze, he barely even noticed how weird it was that Keith kept him inside, forced to sit up on his knees for several seconds. Once he was finally let go, he slid into the sheets next to Keith, blue eyes searching Keith’s face for some kind of clue as to how exactly they got here, but all Keith gave him was a sleepy, satisfied expression. He reached his hand over and pushed all of the other teen’s hair out of his face, keeping the bangs away from the sweat that dotted his forehead.

Keith hummed contentedly. He closed his eyes, enjoying the feel of Lance’s hand brushing across his forehead, and then opened them again. “You smell really good,” he commented tiredly.

“Yeah?” Lance said, raising his eyebrows a little. “I don’t think… I’ve ever gotten that compliment before.”

“That’s too bad,” Keith said, sleepiness creeping into his voice. “Because you smell amazing.” He blinked slowly, eyes getting heavy. “I never noticed… until tonight.”

“Really,” Lance murmured, lowering his voice so he didn’t disturb Keith. “Well you… were amazing. Just so you know,” he added, the tips of his ears burning red as soon as the words came out of his mouth.

Keith puffed out a laugh. “Thanks. I’m glad I didn’t screw up my first time. Would’ve been embarrassing,” which followed with a yawn and another heavy blink.

“Same,” Lance agreed, closing his eyes and nodding in solidarity against his pillow. When he opened his eyes again, he could tell that Keith was struggling. He chuckled quietly. “Go to sleep.”


	2. Doing This

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic was written before season 5 of Voltron aired, so you'll notice that the plot diverges away based on what was going on in season 4.
> 
> Also, Lance says some vaguely transphobic things in this chapter-- forgive him, he's dumb.

The Galra Empire retreated, leaving their lost one-third of territory in the hands of the Coalition. Zarkon and Haggar had their hands full with Lotor, so the rebels finally had a chance to catch their breaths. Keith took the opportunity to part ways with the Blade of Marmora. Not forever, but he needed the down time. Somehow, he managed to keep his vomiting a secret, but it was getting worse. He also felt like he had zero energy.

After Kolivan dropped him off at the castle, Keith detoured down to the lion hangar before seeking out the human members of his team. Even though he wasn’t Red’s pilot anymore, Keith felt a strong bond with the beast and knew he could go to it when he needed mediation or quiet contemplation.

“Hey Red,” he greeted and sat on the lion’s paw. “Hope Lance has been treating you right. I worry about you with that reckless numskull at your controls.”

“Gee, thanks.” The silence that stretched for a few moments after Keith spoke was suddenly broken by Lance’s voice, coming from seemingly nowhere—until the darker-skinned teen peered down from the lion’s mouth, emerging from the cockpit up above. “Y’know, you could knock first before you start smack-talking me to the lion.”

Keith pushed the hood off his head and managed a small smirk. “Trust me, Red and I smack-talked you together long before you became her pilot. I’m not saying anything she isn’t already thinking.” He wiped his sleeve across his forehead in an attempt to hide any evidence he wasn’t feeling well. “Good job capturing Naxzela, by the way.”

“Mm, thanks,” Lance responded, swinging down from Red’s mouth and easily sliding his way down the lion’s leg, without making Red stoop down to deposit him on the ground. He landed next to Keith, perhaps a little bit closer than he intended to, but it gave him a good view of the other boy’s face from where he now crouched, legs braced against the fall. And from that position, Lance frowned up at Keith. “You feeling alright? You look a little...” He paused, unsure of what he was going for, pursing his lips in thought. “Something.”

“I’m just tired from the battle.” Keith deliberately scooted away from Lance. He didn’t need the other guy smelling the puke on his breath. “What were you doing in there anyway? I figured you’d be up there celebrating with Allura and the others. You never miss a chance to party and show off.”

“If you say so!” Lance said, easily springing up to his feet once Keith gave him the room to do so. “And I was saying thanks to Red. I used to do it with Blue all the time after missions, so I figured they might both appreciate it the same. I was going to go back up in a minute.”

Keith actually looked surprised. He didn’t peg Lance for the type to put any extra bonding effort in with his lion. He used to flirt with Blue, sure, but sharing a moment of solidarity and gratitude seemed out of character. Maybe Keith underestimated the Blue Paladin. “Right. I’m gonna get washed up and then I’ll join you all. Galra blade suits don’t exactly breathe,” he said, tugging on the collar of the skin-tight material.

“They cling nice, though,” Lance commented. He didn’t leave a second of dead air before he swiftly turned around, leaving the docking area and whistling just a little too loudly.

Keith rolled his eyes. That sounded more like Lance. He chatted with Red for a bit longer before heading up to the living quarters. In the shower, Keith watched the latest round of vomit wash down the drain while water splashed over his head and back. He leaned forward with his forearm against the tile and his forehead pressed against said forearm. His other hand felt across his churning stomach. The abs that started developing over the course of his training and missions with the Blade of Marmora had now gone soft, all merging into one shape, puffy and firm.

“A job well done, Paladins!” boasted Coran, lifting a glass of champagne along with everyone else around the banquet table. “With Naxzela under our belt, the Coalition has officially and successfully taken back one-third of occupied Galra space. There isn’t a soul in the universe who doesn’t know Voltron’s name, and support for the cause is sky rocketing! And I wanted to give special recognition to Princess Allura, whose power saved Voltron from a devastating defeat. Huzzah, Princess!”

Allura blushed, taking the compliment with a humble bow of her head. “Thank you, Coran. And thanks to all of you for a job well done. You all improve as Voltron’s paladins with every passing day.”

Lance came to join the party, but he couldn’t help noticing, as he held up his champagne glass and grinned along with everyone else, that Keith still hadn’t arrived. He said he was going to wash up, but surely that wouldn’t take this long?

After vigorously brushing his teeth and making sure his stomach didn’t show under the fabric of his shirt, Keith finally joined the rest of the group. It was picturesque. Matt and Pidge talked excitedly about their adventures through space. Coran boasted to Allura about how she was growing into a fine Altean woman. Lance and Hunk babbled on about the battle and how cool they’d all been. Shiro sat at the table, smiling and quiet as he sipped his champagne, content to watch his ragtag family celebrate their victory.

Keith briefly felt like an intruder. He frowned to himself, took half a step forward, but then tried retreating back into the hall before anyone noticed him.

“Hey!” Lance, of course, caught sight of Keith as soon as he came into the room, and chased after him when he slipped back out into the hall. The automatic door slid shut silently behind them. “Where are you going?” he called after Keith’s back, still holding his champagne glass and quirking a brow, confused.

“I’m not a Paladin anymore,” Keith replied curtly. “I don’t belong in there celebrating with the rest of you. Everyone thinks of me as Galra now anyway.” His shoulders rose up sharply as he continued his brisk march down the hall. “I shouldn’t have come back here.”

“Oh, c’mon Keith! You didn’t even try!” Lance shouted, gesturing at the door. When Keith didn’t slow down or stop, he started walking after him, his own footsteps echoing down the hall.

Keith spun around on his heels, still scowling darkly. “Try _what_ exactly? Ignoring the weird stares everyone gives me? Putting up with Hunk’s racist questions? Fitting in someplace where I’m not needed? Pretending Allura doesn’t trust me like she used to? Not being acutely aware of the fact that all of you are waiting for me to betray you? What the hell do you even know about it, Lance?!”

Lance came to an abrupt stop, eyes widening and hands going up like he was being arrested. “Whoa, okay,” he said, now waving his hands in a downwards, calming gesture. “I know it’s gotta be rough. But… I’m not expecting you to betray us. And I can’t speak for everyone else, but you’ve got to know that Shiro’s not. Even if it takes some time for everyone else to come around, you were—_are _still part of the team!”

“Tch…” Keith folded his arms tightly across his chest, immediately going into angry, emo defense mode. “My own lion didn’t take me back. Red chose you and she stayed with you. How am I supposed to feel about that? Allura said I was the only one with a fiery enough spirit to tame Red, I nearly got thrown into the void of space trying to tame her, and now it’s like I didn’t even go through all of that for her.”

“But Black accepted you. He took Shiro back, sure, but you didn’t even want to be team leader,” Lance said, sounding a bit like he was at a loss. “When I offered to step down, you said no and stepped down yourself instead to go with the Blade. I thought that’s what you wanted?”

“Because Allura hated me!” Keith barked. His arm unfolded just enough to press his hand against his chest. “If you stepped down, what guarantee was there that Blue would take you back? Allura would still be Blue’s pilot and I’d be in Red, but then what? With all her animosity towards me, how could we expect to form Voltron? I’d be the monkey wrench in the whole damn thing! And what else was I supposed to do? All of you obviously thought of me as Galra by then. It made the most sense to go be with the Blade if that’s what you all thought.”

“Keith, just because I think of you as Galra now doesn’t mean that my opinion of you has changed,” Lance pointed out, waving one of his hands in a way that was maybe supposed to represent something, but just came off as frustrated flailing. “I feel like _that_ should be obvious, at least.”

Gloved hands raked through his hair. “Don’t think of me as Galra!” Keith finally shouted. “Why does that have to be the thing about me that you all choose to focus on? I’m _Keith. Kogane._ I’m from Earth. I’m human. I’m Japanese. I’m an orphan. I’m a sword fighter. I’m a teenager. I’m a guy. I’m a pilot. I’m plenty of other things! I don’t even know how Galra I am! I could be one-third, one-quarter, one-sixteenth, who knows! I don’t feel like a Galra, so put it out of your hea—Hrrk!” Suddenly, both hands slapped over his mouth, but puke still seeped through his fingers and dripped down his sleeves.

“Whoa, dude!” Lance gasped, nearly fumbling his glass. He ended up stooping down and depositing it on the floor by the wall before coming over to Keith’s side, looking shocked and with his hands hovering, unsure what to do with them. Since he had nothing on him to clean up the sick that was now dangerously close to dripping from Keith’s elbows and onto his shoes, he ended up planting his hands on the other boy’s shoulders and steering him down the hallway towards the nearest bathroom.

Once in the bathroom, Lance lifted the lid of the toilet just in time for Keith to violently vomit into the bowl. It was so violent and heavy, in fact, that it splashed back onto the lid and his face. The back of his neck felt hot and his stomach contracted like a vice. Keith squeezed his eyes shut. It was like this every time. His nose dripped as he choked up orange and brown slurry into the toilet.

Lance flinched, unsure of what he should be doing. He eventually decided to slide back Keith’s bangs and hold his hair back so the vomit wouldn’t get into it. He waited until Keith seemed to be done before rushing over to the sink, wetting a paper towel, and bringing it back into the stall, handing it off to the other boy for his face. “Are you sick, man? How long have you been sick?”

“A couple weeks, I guess.” Keith gagged a few more times, but his stomach had nothing left to give. A thick string of spit dangled from his curled tongue until he dispelled it with the wet paper towel. Hot tears even pricked the corners of his eyes. “I’m not sick, though. Nothing aches. I’m not coughing or running a fever. I just… throw up sometimes.” A gloved hand pushed the button that made the bowl flush and then used toilet paper to clean the splatter.

“You’ve been throwing up for a couple weeks and you haven’t told anybody? Have you gone to the medical bay?” Lance asked, sounding horrified. “We have healing pods, Keith. You could have come back and used them.”

Keith flushed the soiled paper products. “I said I’m not sick. I’m sure it’s just been adrenaline and stress. We went straight up against the Galra Empire. I nearly executed a kamikaze flight into Haggar’s ship. A lot happened and this is probably just my body’s way of reacting.” Although he wasn’t sure what excuse he could give for the bump in his stomach.

“Okay… So _why_ won’t you use the healing pod anyway? Physical stress counts as a thing you can heal,” Lance said, raising an eyebrow, clearly unconvinced.

Keith was silent for almost a minute as he stared down into the now empty, clean toilet bowl. “I just don’t think I need to.”

“If you’ve been throwing up for weeks. I think it’s clear that you need to,” Lance insisted, frowning deeply. “What are you trying to prove?”

It wasn’t about what Keith was trying to prove, but rather what he was trying to _disprove._ There were certain things about the Galra he learned during his time with the Blade of Marmora, and he didn’t want to find out that any of it applied to him. He couldn’t possibly be Galra enough to… “Nothing,” Keith muttered. “Whatever.” He got up, knees wobbling for a second, and then attempted a hasty retreat from the bathroom.

Lance squinted and made a frustrated noise as Keith passed him. “Don’t ‘whatever’ me! I don’t get you. Being a part of the team means people are going to care about you and worry about you, Keith. You can’t simultaneously want that and also brush people off when they insist you take care of yourself!”

The door _swooshed_ open, but Keith stopped right at the threshold. His shoulders hiked up around his ears again. The door closed after no further movement was detected. “Maybe I don’t want to know what’s wrong with me,” Keith finally admitted in a low, even voice.

“What?” Lance answered, drawing thin eyebrows together as he took a couple steps towards Keith. “I don’t understand what you mean by that.”

Deep breath. “Galra are Galra, Lance. They aren’t male or female the way we think of most species. They’re all the same sex and gender with all the same parts. Any Galra can have kits with any other Galra. It doesn’t matter. They go into heat, find a mate with physical prowess, and have kits. Strength breeds strength.” A few beats of silence and then another deep breath. “You and I had sex. …I’m Galra.”

A few moments of silence followed. Lance’s expression might as well be hiding gears turning in his head. “Oh,” he finally said, the implication hitting him like a ton of bricks, eyes widening. “Well… but like… you weren’t in heat, right? And you don’t have any parts I wasn’t expecting on the outside. So if those aren’t a thing, then like… what are the odds that _that’s_ what’s going on?”

“I wasn’t in heat, no, but who knows how much I’m like them and how much I’m not? I agree; everything about me appears human and male. Except…” Keith hesitated, but if this really was _that_, then he wouldn’t be able to keep hiding it for long. “My stomach is kinda… round…”

“Really?” Lance said, voice hushed, like Keith just told him that there was a deer in the room. “If… if that’s true,” he said, taking another step towards the other boy, “then we really should go to the medical bay and find out what’s going on.” He offered his hand, fingers shaking. “Will you? Please?”

Keith let out a long, tired sigh. Lance wasn’t going to let this go, but he was right anyway. Looking at those trembling fingers, Keith laced their hands together and nodded. “Okay, Lance. I’ll go.”

“Okay. Okay, cool,” Lance breathed, long, spindly fingers wasting no time squeezing Keith’s hand. They just stood there for a moment, and Lance glanced at the door and then back at Keith. “Now?”

Keith let out a breathy laugh through his nose and managed one of his subtle, albeit tired, smiles. “Yes, now.” He walked with Lance back to the banquet hall where he asked Coran to accompany them to the medical bay. The others showed their concern and asked if they should come, but Keith assuaged their fears by saying it was just aches and pains from the battle. Nothing to worry about.

After changing into the white medical body suit, Keith entered the infirmary looking beyond self-conscious. The Blade uniform had a bit of bulk and the black helped hide things. The white med suit made the slight shape of his stomach obvious from the right angles. A long sigh and then he stepped into one of the pods.

“Right, we have to give the pod time to scan Keith and analyze all his bio data, but we should have answers shortly,” Coran explained. He side-glanced at Lance. “Did you boys talk about what to do if the scan comes back positive?”

“Uh,” Lance answered, eloquently. “No, not… yet. I’m a little blindsided,” he admitted, putting a hand to his head. “I didn’t think I’d be thinking about something like this today.”

“You should prepare yourself for any possible outcome,” Coran warned. “Even if the scan comes back positive, it might not be viable. Without knowing how many generations removed Keith is from his Galra ancestor, it will be hard to know how stable his reproductive biology is, even with scanners.”

Keith looked between Lance and Coran as they spoke. He couldn’t make out what they were saying, only able to hear muffled tones through the thick glass of the pod. Lance looked stressed.

Coran put a hand on the teen’s shoulder. “I don’t mean to alarm you or overwhelm you. I just want to make sure you’re aware of all the possibilities. The pregnancy could proceed smoothly, or spontaneous abortion could happen at any time, even in the second or third trimester. I’ll discuss all of this with Keith as well when he gets out.”

Lance was about to open his mouth and suggest that maybe they wouldn’t even have to worry about it if the tests came back negative. But then he looked over at Keith, at the slight curve of his stomach, and thought back to the other boy randomly vomiting into his hands mid-sentence. “Right, okay,” Lance said, sighing. He pulled at the skin below his eyes with two fingers on each side, like he was trying to wake himself up from a dream. “I’m too young for this, Coran. I didn’t know this could happen…”

“Nobody did. Well… If we knew earlier that Keith was Galra and it was more obvious in his bio features, I could have warned you. Genetic diversity and survival of the fittest are cornerstones in Galra reproduction. They rarely take mates and instead breed with multiple partners to ensure large, strong numbers. It’s an advantage the Empire has over other species. I don’t think Keith is the type to hold you responsible, though. If you don’t want to be a part of this, he won’t force you.”

The pod beeped and a pink outline traced Keith’s body. All the readings were in Altean, but Coran of course translated. “Looks like high levels of cortisol in the brain, but stress is understandable right now. He’s got some minor cuts and contusions. And here…” He tapped a small alert flashing over Keith’s torso. Another pink outline of Keith’s lower lungs, stomach, and intestines appeared. Among the organs was—sure enough—a uterus with a solid pink mass inside it. “There you have it,” Coran announced quietly.

“Whoa,” Lance breathed, looking at the screen and still rubbing the area just below his eyes. He couldn’t believe it. Testing the waters, he looked up at Keith, searching for his reaction. Even if he couldn’t hear anything, the looks on his and Coran’s faces probably gave it away.

Not only could Keith see the looks on their faces, but he could see the readouts from inside the pod. Everything was flipped backwards, of course, but that didn’t stop him from recognizing his additional body parts and their contents. Keith’s own face went white as a sheet and his eyes grew horrifyingly wide. This was the thing he didn’t want to know. This was the thing he didn’t want to be true! He didn’t want to have this in common with the Galra! The pod beeped and flashed as the boy suddenly started hyperventilating. Coran tapped a few buttons on the glass and a cloud of gas filled the pod, which immediately put Keith to sleep.

“Can’t say I didn’t expect a reaction like that,” the Altean sighed.

Lance ran his hands up into his short hair. “What are we gonna do?” he breathed, his own eyes blowing out, widening as his pupils shrank. “Keith can’t be out of commission. And a war zone is no place for a baby to be born. But…”

“But it’s up to Keith to decide,” Coran finished for him. “You’re both young and not even in a stable, committed relationship. If this one ends in termination, you boys can try again when conditions are better. Beyond that, it’ll be a conversation for both of you to have when he comes out of stasis. Maybe by then you’ll both have gotten over the shock.”

Lance swallowed, looking anywhere but at Coran or Keith. “Right, yeah. You're right,” he said, taking slow, deep breaths. “Can I wait? Here?”

“Of course.” Coran gave Lance another squeeze on the shoulder before leaving. He wasn’t going to gossip to the rest of the team, but he _did_ have an obligation to inform the princess. Coran knew Allura wouldn’t say anything either.

It was about an hour before the pod opened with a sharp hiss and Keith came tumbling out of it the same way Allura and Lance both did at different times.Lance had been sitting on the floor for that hour, alternating between looking at the floor and the ceiling as he thought about the news they'd been given. When the pod opened, he sprung to his feet, nearly tripping over himself just to offer his hands to Keith and prevent _him_ from tripping. Keith ended up against his chest, his hands completely bypassed and hanging uselessly in the air. “Um. Hey,” Lance said.

“Did you seriously hold out your hands like I was going to step down from the pod?” Keith groaned. “It’s stasis, genius. The pod ejects you in the same instant you wake up from a drug-induced coma. I know you have a brain the size of a walnut, but I thought you’d at least remember your own time spent in one of these things.” Despite his bullying, Keith stayed braced against Lance’s chest and even looped his arm’s weakly around the other teen’s waist.

“Wow, okay,” Lance murmured, taken aback only briefly by how harsh Keith's teasing was. But feeling those arms loop around his waist, he didn't bite back, just let his hands come to rest on the other boy's lower back.

Keith was silent for a few minutes. He closed his eyes and sighed. Couldn’t just keep putting it off, could he? “I saw the holoscreen from inside the glass,” he said. “I’m… I’m actually… pregnant…” The word felt totally foreign on his tongue.

“Yeah, you... sure are,” Lance said, immediately wincing at his own awkwardness. That really wasn't the proper reaction, but it already spilled out of his mouth, so oh well. “How do you, um. Feel about that?”

“I don’t really know,” Keith confessed. “Numb… scared… confused… angry… lost…” He pressed his forehead against Lance’s shoulder. “Kinda guilty that none of those things are positive.”

“I can't really blame you, though,” Lance murmured, now rubbing a small circle across Keith's back with one hand, unable to think of anything more useful to do. “Those are the feelings, then. Any thoughts yet?”

Keith swallowed thickly. “That I’m not Galra-enough to have a litter. They have litters, Lance. They have litters of kits with little sharp teeth and big furry ears so what if it doesn’t look like either one of us? What if it comes out all purple with claws?”

“Uh,” Lance answers. He felt like he was handling this okay so far, but that left him at a loss for words. “Well… I mean… You don’t look Galra. And I’m not Galra at all, at least, I’m pretty sure. So… that’s unlikely. Right?”

A pillar of strength and reassurance. Keith closed his eyes, frowning, and finally leaned away from Lance. “I need to go think about this.” He glanced back towards the pod, as if expecting to see the pink outline still on the glass, but then got up to leave. Maybe he really _should_ return to the Blade of Marmora. They’d know more about this than anyone else… Whether he should go through with it or terminate the whole thing.

“Wait, Keith,” Lance said, scrambling to try and get the words out before the other teen could stalk out of the room. “Uh… Listen. Whatever you decide to do, that’s your choice, y’know? A litter… a whole litter sounds kind of scary, so I understand. But no matter what it… or they... come out looking like… that’d be fine.” Lance paused, unsure of if he communicated that properly. Obviously, it wouldn’t be perfectly fine if there were little Galra kids running around this Altean castle-ship suddenly, but. “What I _mean_ is, I’m here for you no matter how things turn out.”

Keith paused and turned his head a bit, but he didn’t actually look back at Lance. “Okay. Thanks.” It was all he offered before leaving for his room. Keith wanted to get out of this suit and back into something more familiar.“Kolivan.” After changing into his pajamas, Keith fished the commlink from his Blade suit. “Kolivan, this is Keith, do you copy?”

“I copy you, Keith,” came Kolivan’s voice from the commlink, after a brief moment of silence. “We don’t have any communications planned at this time, is there an emergency?”

Keith took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Not an emergency, no, but… a personal crisis. Listen… I just found out I’m pregnant, and I know it’s because I’m part Galra.” He swallowed. “Only Lance and Coran know right now. I don’t know how the others will react, but… there’s a chance they’ll never know at all if I… take action. Except… Do the Galra… the Blade of Marmora… find dishonor in… robbing a kit of its chance at life?”

Kolivan hummed quietly, seemingly trying to find the most tactful way to answer Keith’s question. “There is a… stigma,” he admitted. “Not in the Galra Empire, not anymore. But within the Blade of Marmora, yes. We retained that philosophy from how the Galra once thought. Though, to be honest, none of us are even attempting to have kits right now. For obvious reasons.” Another beat where Kolivan took a quiet moment to gather his thoughts. “You are only part Galra, Keith. Everyone would understand if you were concerned that they… or _you_… would not even survive the process.”

Keith hadn’t even considered that. He swallowed again and unconsciously put a hand on his stomach. “Is having Galra kits difficult, Kolivan?”

“As difficult as it is for any species who frequently bear multiples,” Kolivan answered honestly. “We evolved to stand upright because it is almost a requirement in order to advance as a species and thrive in this space-faring world, but we also need to keep our population numbers up, so mates which bore many kits were still favored, despite the strain it put on our erect body structures. The two don’t really mix, but the Galra have been doing all they can to make it work for as long as they possibly can. But you are human, Keith. Maybe half, or maybe more human than Galra. Who knows how your body will react. Prince Lotor was an only child, and that was regarded as a blessing in disguise, and he’s fully half Galra, if that gives you some idea.”

“Haggar is Altean, though. If Alteans are anything like humans, she only had one egg to spare at the time. Galra bearers have multiples eggs available for fertilization at almost any time. I’m part human, but I’m not a human female, so who knows if my eggs are released one at a time or multiples at a time.” Obviously, Keith was thinking out loud more than he was having a conversation, but Kolivan being on the commlink with him was somewhat reassuring. “The scan in the pod only showed one shape, but that could mean they’re all still tiny and clustered together… My mom was Galra and she only had me. At least… that I know of…” Keith’s eyes widened. “What if I have siblings I never met? What if I was part of a litter? Maybe they all looked Galra but I didn’t… so I grew up on Earth and they went to live with the Empire. What if… What if I’ve been fighting my siblings this whole time?”

“Keith,” came Kolivan’s voice, firm and loud over the commlink. “You can’t dwell on the past. There’s nothing to be done about it. What you need to do now is make a very important decision about your future,” he advised, his voice dropping to a more normal volume. “What are you going to do?”

Kolivan’s deep voice snapped Keith out of his spiral. He gripped the fabric of his shirt over his stomach. “I don’t want to punish the part of me that’s Galra just because it’s different or I’m scared of it,” he said. “Other than my dagger, it’s the only part of my mom I have left with me. I feel like… it would disrespect her and her memory if I didn’t try to see this through. If an emergency does happen… then I might have to take action, but… at least I can say I tried. That feels like the right thing to do.”

“Hm,” Kolivan answered. It was a hasty decision, if Keith only just found out about this before calling. But Kolivan was not about to try and talk Keith into the opposite direction, either. It definitely was not his place to do so, nor did he want to. “That’s a very noble reason,” he decided to say. “Is your mate in the picture?” he asked, trying to steer the conversation in a way that would keep Keith’s mind personally ruminating on the topic for a little while longer.

Keith exhaled sharply through his teeth as some type of laughter. “My mate, right… He’s the sire of my kits, but I wouldn’t call him my mate. We have sex casually when we’re both horny. It’s like being in heat, I guess.” That made Keith think back to Lance’s question. Keith insisted he hadn’t been in heat, but had he been? Would he even know the difference between human horny and Galra heat? “It’s Lance. The Blue Paladin. I can tell he’s nervous and awkward about the whole thing, but he claims he’ll support me whichever decision I make. I just don’t think I should hold him accountable.”

“Keith, if he’s willing to take responsibility, you should take him up on that offer. Not everyone gets to have the sire’s help throughout the pregnancy. And if you end up with a full litter of kits, you’ll want that help,” Kolivan advised sternly.

“Right…” Keith hummed. “I’m sure I’ll immediately regret asking this question, but exactly how many kits are in an average litter?”

“Two to three is common. In rare cases, anywhere up to six has been reported,” Kolivan responded.

Keith slumped back in his bunk with a relieved sigh. “Only two or three? That doesn’t sound so bad. Humans have the same numbers sometimes. Oh man… I was sitting here thinking the litters _started_ at five or six. I feel like I was worried for nothing. What makes you say having three kits is so hard, Kolivan? Humans have always been upright, so maybe that makes a difference…”

“It’s just the way our bones are. The stomach where the kits grow isn’t cradled like it is with a human’s pelvis. Honestly Keith, if your immune system does not reject the kits, you might have a very easy time of things compared to most Galra.”

“Here’s hoping.” Keith sighed, his smile falling back into his usual neutral frown. “Having kits during the middle of a war isn’t great timing, but we just got done taking back a third of the Empire, so there’s plenty of safe space now. I’m not needed as a pilot for Voltron, so it’s not like the team will be hurting with me out of commission. The Blade of Marmora needs all the fighters it can get, but I think you guys more than anybody will understand why I have to take a break for a while.”

“Of course, Keith,” Kolivan said. “I would say that communications are open any time if you need guidance, but you know how dangerous that can be. So if you’d like to talk, send me a message with a specified day and time in a coded transmission and we can speak then.”

“I will, Kolivan, and thanks for talking to me this time. I really needed to talk it through with a Galra. You helped me think through some hard decisions. I appreciate it. Keith signing out.” He deposited the commlink in a little pressurized cubby near his head and then settled down into bed. Okay. He was doing this.


	3. Let Me Help You

Keith stood in the control room in front of the assembled team. He called them all here not too long ago. Now, seven pairs of eyes stared at him, quizzical, nervous, knowing, curious, hesitant, and eager. Deep breath. “I have an announcement.” That much was obvious, but he had to start somewhere, right? “Yesterday in the medical bay, I found out I’m pregnant.”

“Whoa,” Hunk murmured.

Keith cleared his throat. “My Galra biology makes it possible for me to… bear young.” The terminology he chose to use sounded odd for a human, but somehow, speaking the way a Galra would speak made him more comfortable. “It’s possible I could have just one kit, but I could also have anywhere from three to six kits. I won’t reveal the sire’s identity unless he wants me to. I _have_ decided to go through with the pregnancy despite the risk factors. If anyone for any reason feels like I shouldn’t stay on the ship during this time, I’ll respect their feelings and find somewhere else to live until the kits are born.”

“Kits, like… fox kits? You’re saying kits, not kids, right? I’m not hearing that wrong,” Matt piped up, raising a hand like he was in school.

“Yes, he’s saying kits,” Allura confirmed, looking wholly uncomfortable with the entire situation, her slender fingers delicately pressed to one temple. Shiro and Lance both looked over at her, seemingly picking up on the fact that if anyone was going to protest to Keith staying on the ship, it was most likely to be her.

“You shouldn’t—” both Lance and Shiro started to say at the same time. They exchanged glances with each other, and Lance shrunk under Shiro’s firm stare, giving him the floor to speak.

“You shouldn’t have to leave, Keith,” Shiro said, shaking his head. “If someone has a problem, we talk about it and resolve it as a team.”

Keith held out both hands in an appeasing gesture. “I know it’s about more than me being part Galra and having Galra kits. The Empire is off our backs for now, but we don’t know how long that will last. We’re still fighting a war. The castle isn’t a hospital or a hotel. Other than helping coordinate missions with Coran, I won’t be of use to anyone. I already spoke with Kolivan. The Blade accepts my temporary leave of absence with them. If me being here will be a distraction, then I should go. I’m sure one of the planets we liberated will host me for a while.”

Pidge pushed her glasses up on her nose. “So, you’re saying that once the kits are born, you’ll come back. Right?”

Keith hesitated and scratched the back of his head. “Well… the castle is even less of a place for Galra kits than it is a place for pregnant Paladins. Whichever planet I establish myself on is where I’ll have to raise the kits, too.”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait.” Hunk waved his hands around while shaking his head with a distressed expression. “You’re making it sound like you’re leaving and never coming back.”

“You can always come visit me?”

“Wait, hold on, no!” Lance said, finally piping up. “You’re not taking my kids to some random planet and not coming back! No way!”

“Oh my god, seriously?” Matt gasped, covering his mouth.

Lance opened his own mouth to respond, one finger brandished, only for the words to die on his lips and that finger to droop when he realized what he’d let slip so unceremoniously. So much for not revealing his identity.

Pidge rolled her eyes. “Oh c’mon, like we all didn’t know you two were in each other’s pants since day one of Voltron training.”

Hunk meekly raised his hand. “Um, I didn’t know.”

“For real? Am I the only one who thought it was obvious?”

“Female intuition?”

Keith, meanwhile, just stood there completely red in the face.

“Well then!” Coran piped up and stepped forward. “Since we’re on the subject of babies and inside each other’s knickers, this seems like the perfect opportunity to discuss the notion of ‘no glove, no love!’ We live in close quarters, Paladins. And Matt. You’re all young and virile, so it makes sense you have physical urges. That’s why you need protection!”

Hunk again raised his hand. “What if I don’t have urges to be inside other people’s pants?”

“Tut, tut! A little sex education never hurt anyone.” Coran pulled up a holoscreen displaying a photo of some sort of spotted slug in a variety of vibrant candy colors. “This is a Wuabbod. They aren’t much bigger than the palm of your hand. When two people find themselves in the mood,” he waggled his eyebrows for emphasis, “the gentleman lets the Wuabbod slide its mouth over his penis, which easily fits inside the entire body of the Wuabbod. During coitus, the gentleman ejaculates into the Wuabbod, which uses the semen as nutrients, and then produces a valuable crystal from the refuse. It’s a magnificent symbiotic relationship!”

“First of all, ew, gross. Second of all, I was trying to make a dramatic point,” Lance said, waving his hands wildly and then stomping his way over to Keith. “You can’t leave! Why are you talking about leaving?”

Keith frowned, putting on his most serious of faces. “I’m trying to be realistic, Lance. This castle serves as a battleship. Not only that, but it’s the central hub for Voltron and all its allied forces. I’m also trying to be respectful to Allura.” He looked over at the princess and his expression softened. “You came to me and told me you could look past my Galra ancestry. You told me you still saw me _as me_ and we would still be friends. I believed you then, Allura, and I believe you now. At the same time, I know it would be a lot to just… dump two-to-six Galra kits on you all of the sudden. If you aren’t ready to have that many Galra in the castle, then I understand.”

Allura frowned, gathering her thoughts before she spoke. She eventually cleared her throat and lifted her head from where she had it cradled in her hand. “I appreciate you wanting to be respectful of my feelings, Keith, and it is true that I would not be very happy if two-to-six Galra moved onto the ship.” She paused, shifting her posture to also stand taller, putting her hands behind her back and nodding definitively. “But these aren’t just any Galra. They are a part of a family, one that I will not have a hand in breaking up. So please don’t concern yourself with my opinion on the matter past this point.”

“There, see,” Lance said, smiling nervously and gesturing at Allura. “That’s one of two things taken care of. The castle’s still a battleship, but we can figure that out, right?”

Keith watched Allura a few seconds longer. Her expression was genuine. He then looked at Lance. “You… You already called them your kids.”

Lance glanced to the side, and then looked back at Keith, quirking a confused eyebrow. “Are they not? I don’t follow.”

“He’s commenting on your seemingly immediate possession of and commitment to the kits during a time in the discovery period when it’s far more likely that you’d still be detached and unsure,” Pidge explained, fixing her glasses as she often did when spelling things out for her teammates.

“Just because they _are_, doesn’t mean you’d feel that way,” Hunk added much simpler.

Keith half gestured at their friends. “What they said.”

“Okay, well,” Lance said, putting his hands on his hips. “Then I’m bucking the stereotype. Listen, I come from a big family. Family’s important to me. If that means getting serious and responsible and junk, even if I’m not ready for it or I wasn’t expecting it, then so be it. I’m not letting a part of my family get separated from me just so I can regret it in a couple years. That’s dumb.”

Shiro and Matt were now the ones exchanging looks. Keith’s announcement took an unexpected turn and now they felt like they were listening in on a conversation that was really meant to be had in private, _not _with the entire team assembled in a neat line and observing from a short distance away.

“Maybe don’t refer to responsibility as ‘junk,’” suggested Pidge.

Keith started having the same thoughts as Shiro and Matt, so he silently herded Lance out of the control room into the hall where they were alone once the door slid shut. “Pidge makes a good point, Lance. I need to know you’re serious about this. Kolivan said not all Galra have the privilege of the sire being present throughout the pregnancy, but if any of them are so lucky, then it’s really important. Galra pregnancies are hard. I don’t want to start relying on you now, only for you to get cold feet later.”

“I am serious,” Lance said, almost sounding offended. “I just talked loudly about how serious I am in front of six people who really didn’t even need to know all that stuff I said!” Which he did totally on purpose, mind you, and not because he just starts to word vomit when he gets his nerves frazzled. Don’t be ridiculous.

“Because you blurt and babble when you’re nervous,” Keith said, calling Lance out on his bullshit. “Look, I’m not trying to put you down or make a comment about you being irresponsible. You’re only seventeen. You didn’t expect this, much less plan for it. You’re still a Paladin with responsibilities to the team. We aren’t even in a committed relationship. I’m trying to say that I understand if you didn’t want to be heavily involved in this. If you do, that’s fine. We just… _really_ have to hear each other through this.”

“You’re only a year older than me,” Lance pointed out, frowning gently. “I don’t understand why you’re trying to give me all this leeway when you should be just as unprepared. I want to be involved, bottom line, end of story. And not because I feel obligated or whatever.” His face softened then, allowing the frown and the knitted eyebrows to go away. “Stay here and let me help you, Keith. C’mon. Please?”

Keith sighed. He sighed a lot the last twenty-four hours. “I’ll stay.” He ran his hand through his hair, displacing the thick fringe of bangs. “So should I still call you the sire or maybe the dad or what?”

Lance watched Keith’s fingers move, quiet as he thought. “Um. Dad, if that’s okay. ‘Sire’ sounds a little weird. No offense.”

“Galra don’t have genders, remember? A mated pair is a sire and a bearer. It makes sense for them. Since the Galra part of me is what makes me able to have kits, I kinda just automatically adopted their vocabulary. It made talking to Kolivan a lot easier, too. Maybe it helped me cope better. I dunno.” Keith crossed his arms over his chest. “Guess I’ll have to think about what I should be called. Nothing wrong with both of us being Dad, though…”

“I can take Papa if you like Dad,” Lance offered. “Even if it’s technically the right terminology, if my kids were calling me ‘sire’, I’d feel like a medieval knight or something.” He then leaned back a little on his heels, taking in Keith’s posture. It was closed off, but not overly tense. “Honestly, I kind of expected you to still be a little freaked out. You got over the initial shock awfully quick.”

Keith raised an eyebrow. “Who says I’m not still freaked out?” Of everyone on the team, he was the master at masking his emotions. The situation in which Keith found himself was terrifying. “Talking to Kolivan helped,” he said again. “My immune system could still attack them, though. If natural termination happens early enough, hopefully osmosis will occur instead of me having to bleed them out. But even if they survive into the second trimester, my body might not be strong enough to support them. They could still die. If they make it past that, there’s a chance _I_ could die. Galra pregnancies are hard enough on Galra. Who knows what it’ll do to someone who’s part-human? I know the kits are part-human too, but we don’t know what the biology roulette is going to do. They might all be big and purple with claws. They might all be little Asian-Latino humans. I don’t know. I don’t know.”

Lance raised his eyebrows too, trying to read Keith’s expression. He was talking like someone who had a handle on everything, but that couldn’t possibly be true. Keith admitted he was scared. So, Lance suddenly extended his arms, making it clear that he was going in for a hug before stepping forward a moment later and pulling the other teen into an embrace, clapping his hands against his back. “I’m going to help, okay? Let me help.”

“How are you going to help?” Keith kept his arms crossed and hiked his shoulders up around his ears even while Lance hugged him. “_My_ body has to do all the work. _My_ body has to not fuck up and let them die or let me die. It’s this entirely self-contained delicate procedure that nobody but me has any control over, and even I don’t have complete control. I can’t just tell my immune system not to attack the kits. What if that happens? What are you going to do? What is anyone going to do? I don’t see how you can help. Kolivan said sires are important for helping their bearers, but I don’t understand how.”

“I don’t know,” Lance said honestly, squeezing Keith harder like it was going to make him acquiesce to the hug faster. “I’ll take one of the pod ships down to planets to buy you things you need while you rest and I’ll talk to you if you need to, man. I don’t know. Whatever.” If Lance knew anything about Keith, it’s that he’d never ask for help and he’d just up and leave if someone didn’t explicitly insist on helping him and beg him not to go. Lance had to be that person now, so, so be it.

Yet another sigh. Keith bumped his head against Lance’s shoulder. It was the most he would reciprocate the hug.

* * *

Keith remained his more or less moody self, just with a lot more puking and a lot less training. Voltron was away from the castle often. The newly freed planets had to be properly welcomed into the Coalition, and Coran thought it best to have more parades and performances as a means to do so. Allura also decided that dinners hosting the many leaders of the Coalition planets was vital to forming strong bonds, so visiting dignitaries were on the ship more often than not, which only encouraged Keith to stay cooped up in his room. The Paladins needed to be present at the dinners as well.

Between parades, banquets, peace talks, strategy meetings, parties, and all other forms of public appearances, Keith actually ended up not seeing much of Lance for a few weeks. He anticipated this, though. He wasn’t about to complain.

Finally, Keith couldn’t help noticing how his stomach pushed against his shirt. Everything was still covered, but he looked like he was getting a beer belly. He couldn’t fasten the utility belt around his waist anymore, which sucked, because he started carrying anti-emetic patches in the pouches on either hip. He stood in his room in front of the mirror studying the severe roundness of his belly. This seemed like a lot too soon. Suddenly, Keith heard the door _whoosh_ open. He scrambled, but only accomplished slouching and crossing his arms awkwardly in front of his torso.

Lance stood in the doorway, his fist raised in the air and poised to knock, and his expression shifting into shock when the door just opened on its own. It was so rare for Keith not to lock his door. Had he forgotten to lock it? “Oh. Sorry. Is this a bad time?” he asked, noticing immediately how Keith seemed to freak out and then curl in on himself.

Keith looked like a deer in the headlights. He too was sorely confused by his unlocked door. “Can you go back out for like, thirty seconds?” he asked after finding his voice.

“Um. Sure,” Lance said, doing as he was told and just backing up until the door _whooshed _shut again, leaving Lance standing awkwardly in the hallway, waiting to be invited back in.

Alone again, Keith hurried to pull on his shirt, sit on the bed, and then pull a pillow into his lap to completely hide any obvious signs that he was turning into a major fatty. “Okay, come in!”

Lance stepped back into the room, looking at where Keith used to be standing and then turning his attention to where Keith now sat. He immediately noticed the pillow. “Really?”

Keith glanced away and then back, getting the _'Vol…tron?' _look on his face. “What? I’m just sitting here. Be glad I’m not vomiting all over your sneakers.”

“Keith, I know you’re pregnant, what are you even hiding right now?” Lance asked, coming to stand in front of Keith with his hands firmly on his hips.

“Nothing. Shut up. I told you, I’m just sitting here.” It wasn’t until now that Keith noticed a crown of yellow and blue flowers on Lance’s head. Today must have been another parade day. “A gift from the natives?” he asked, gesturing at the crown. “Did a bunch of girls give it to you?”

“Don’t change the subject,” Lance said, wrinkling his nose and leaning down, putting the crown from his head onto Keith’s. With the momentary distraction implemented, he then grabbed at the pillow and attempted to yank it away.

Keith couldn’t believe he fell for it. He reached up to fix the flower crown that landed crookedly on his head, and that was just enough to allow Lance a chance to snatch the pillow. “Lance, no!” But it was too late. Keith’s belly, big enough to rival a soccer ball, strained the fabric of his grey shirt—almost to the point of distorting the color to show the pale underneath. “Are you happy now? Proud of yourself?” Keith snapped.

“Oh my god, I thought something was _wrong_,” Lance said, putting his hands up to his face and dragging them down his cheeks after dropping the pillow on the ground. “You scared me for a second!” Then he paused and actually looked at Keith’s belly. Man, it looked… much bigger than he remembered it being when Keith made his announcement of the pregnancy, and that hadn’t been that long ago. That’s when it dawned on him. “Kolivan said… up to six, right?”

“Sure, but only in rare cases.” Keith snatched the pillow up off the floor and stuffed it back into his lap. “He said two or three was the most common. It’s probably just twins.” He reached for the flower crown again, but on second thought, he let it stay atop his head. “If you want to be useful, I need some new shirts. There’s gotta be a mall in this galaxy somewhere with masculine maternity clothes.”

“I can go look,” Lance promised, but he still looked skeptical. “Were you… planning on saying anything about this? Or am I gonna find out everything by just stumbling across something you’re hiding?”

Keith shrugged. “You’ve been busy.”

Lance let his shoulders slump, frowning. “C’mon, Keith.”

“What? You _have_ been busy. I told everyone I was pregnant three weeks ago and I’ve seen you maybe five times since then. M’not mad. I’m just saying. And it’s really only since yesterday that I let my size get my attention.” Keith shrugged again. “I’ve been in denial a bit that I’m already outgrowing my clothes.”

Lance was quiet for a moment, but then released the tension from his shoulders and sighed. “Okay,” he said, accepting Keith’s reasoning, at least for now. He decided then that he’d be the one to reach out and adjust the crown on Keith’s head until it laid straight. “Sorry. I’m still pretty nervous for you.”

“That makes two of us.” Keith glanced upward, barely catching sight of some petals resting against his forehead. “But seriously, did a bunch of girls give this to you? They probably giggled and called you their hero, right?”

“No. I mean, they might’ve been girls. They were kids, Keith,” Lance said, deciding to stop standing in front of the other teen like a stern mother and flop down onto the bed next to him, his back against the sheets and his arms spread wide on either side of him, so he was looking at Keith’s back. If Keith was going to hide his stomach, might as well make it easier on him and take advantage of this rare opportunity to lie on his bed uninvited. “Village kids. Made one for each of us in our suit colors. Allura and I confused them with our suits not matching the lions but they figured it out.”

Keith squirmed a bit. He didn’t appreciate Lance throwing himself on the neatly-made bed and putting wrinkles in the sheets. Their closeness was also slightly unwanted. “That sort’ve does raise the question if you’re still technically the Blue Paladin or if you’re now the Red Paladin,” he mused. “Is it the suit or the lion that dictates our title?”

“I’m the Blue Paladin of the Red Lion,” Lance answered with a noncommittal shrug. He turned his head so his cheek laid against the bed spread, and he breathed in a deep, thankful breath, seemingly overjoyed just to be lying down. “You think I could pull off the red suit?” he asked with a tiny, tired laugh.

“You’re taller and skinnier than I am, so I’ll go out on a limb and say no.” Keith crossed his legs on the bed and hugged the pillow closer to his torso. “You know what’s weird? I haven’t been horny once since I got pregnant. Is it the same for you, or have you just been keeping your distance?”

“My hormones did not suddenly go away, no,” Lance said, looking guiltily at the sheets he was pressed up against. He was quiet for a moment, processing that information. “You were totally in heat, dude.”

Keith’s entire spine turned rigid and he whipped his head around, scowling at the other teen. “I was _not_ in _heat,_” he huffed. “I get regular horny like any other regular guy. If I was in heat, then you were too. We had the same urges, same feelings, did the same things to each other… We’re the same.”

“What does being horny feel like?” Lance asked, raising an eyebrow.

“C’mon, Lance, you already know.” When the other boy just kept starting at him, waiting for an answer, Keith let out a long, huffy breath. “Horny feels like an ache between your legs and in your stomach. You get all hot and feel like you need to have sex _really badly_. Jerking off helps a little bit, but it still lasts for a few days until you finally do have sex. It’s the worst when you’re horny for a whole week. You can’t think about anything else, right? I mean, it goes away eventually, but it’s so frustrating until then. And then it happens all over again the next month.”

“What the fuck, really?” Lance whispered, eyes widening. He suddenly sat up, jerking upright beside Keith. “I don’t know how to tell you this, buddy, but that’s _not_ how it happens for me. Or most people, I think. I get horny because of some specific stimulus that turns me on, and after I jerk off, it’s over. It never lasts for days, let alone a week! That’s a cycle, man. A _heat_ cycle.”

Keith’s face flushed, his expression somewhere between embarrassed and confused. “Stop messing with me, Lance. It’s the same for you, right? That’s why you’re constantly flirting with people; so you can find someone who will give you relief. Why else would you always be trying to get into people’s pants if not because you’re burning up inside? You can’t tell me I’m the only person to ever cry all night long because of this… hot, painful emptiness consuming me. _That’s_ horny.”

“That’s not horny. That sounds terrible,” Lance argued, running his hands up into his hair. This made so much sense. Keith would always, without fail, seek out Lance in the beginning of each month to mess around, and then would ignore him for the rest of the month, like clockwork. It always sent Lance the weirdest mixed signals, leaving him unable to decode if Keith really liked him or just needed to get his rocks off on a consistent, weird timetable. Now he understood why. “I flirt with people I’d like to _date _to show them I’m interested_,_ Keith, not because I’m constantly horny and need to stick my dick in something. I was always horny when you were because you always came on super strong and got me going right away.” A phenomenon that was now explained, too. Nature sure was amazing.

“Oh my god,” Keith groaned and let his face fall into his hands. All those nights in foster homes, at the academy, and then alone in his shack when he writhed under the sheets thinking he was going to die no matter how furiously he masturbated to relieve himself. It was all his Galra biology making him suffer in a way no human ever should. And then he went sleeping with Lance nearly half a dozen times. No wonder he wound up pregnant. “Wait…” Dark, blue-hazel eyes looked over at Lance. “Why don’t you ever flirt with me?”

“What do you mean why don’t I ever flirt with you?” Lance parroted, looking confused. “Most recently, the day we found out you were pregnant, I was flirting with you in the hangar. You don’t consider that flirting?”

Keith looked down at the floor, trying to recall. “Oh, sure, there was that time. About my Blade suit being tight, right? But… when else have you flirted with me?” he asked, now glancing up at Lance again.

Lance couldn’t help laughing a little, incredulous. “Keith, every time I tease you, I’m flirting with you. You wouldn’t believe my confusion when it never, _ever_ worked, but then you’d come find me wanting to bump uglies on some seemingly random day. I couldn’t figure out if you knew I was interested or not. Guess now I know you just never registered the flirting. Wow.”

“How was I supposed to know _that’s_ how you flirt with me? Whenever you flirt with girls, you’re all ‘What’s cookin’ good lookin’?” Keith raised his voice in an attempt to mimic Lance and made finger guns while winking. “Meanwhile, when you make fun of me, you have this look on your face like someone farted and you call me an emo kid disaster. Those are two completely different messages!”

“Do you want me to use cheesy lines on you?” Lance asked, tilting his head. “I thought you wouldn’t like cheesy lines. I thought arguing was like… our thing.”

“I don’t know,” Keith groaned and again let his face flop into his hands. “I guess I just suck at reading people. I take people’s words and actions at face value.” As evidenced by the whole _“Vol…tron?”_ scenario. “I dunno… I got passed around so many foster homes as a kid that I never really got to know anyone long enough to learn… social stuff. I say and do exactly what I mean, and I sort of assume other people are the same way.”

“Oh,” Lance said, looking away. He supposed that was how Keith didn’t pick up on the fact that Lance admitted he flirted with people he wanted to date _and_ admitted to flirting with Keith in the span of just a few minutes. “Well, let it be known, then, what the teasing means. The real question now is: Do you actually find me attractive, or was I just the first person willing to fool around with you on your heat schedule?”

“I find you attractive,” Keith admitted. “As much as you infuriate me, you’re actually pretty funny and cute. You were the first and only person I was going to approach while I was… in heat.” He said the last part reluctantly still. “I might’ve gone to Shiro, but only as a means to an end. I’m emotionally drawn to you and the physical urges were just a natural follow up. When I start sweating and aching, I immediately think of you. I need to go to you.”

Lance felt his entire face flush a bright, embarrassed red. Holy shit, Keith describing his weird heat thing should _not_ have been as hot as it was. “I see,” he said, ignoring the rush of blood between his legs. “That’s… nice.”

Keith frowned and let his chin drop against the top of the pillow still clutched in his lap. “You’re just saying that. I can tell it makes you feel weird.”

Lance laughed, shaking his head. He couldn’t believe this was happening to him. “No Keith, this is how human-horny is _supposed_ to work. You say something sexual, and I react. No phases of the moon or specific times of the month or whatever.”

Without a word, Keith reached out his hand and cupped it against the side of Lance’s neck, then his cheek, and then his forehead. Even though the tan teen was blushing, his skin didn’t feel feverish or sweaty. Keith hummed a displeased noise. So… it really was just him. “Sorry, I wasn’t trying to be sexual. I was just trying to answer your question… Explain how my brain and body work.” He was quiet for a few beats. “And your stomach doesn’t hurt?”

“You really don’t have to apologize. And no, it doesn’t,” Lance answered. As much as he didn’t really want to be talking about the specifics of what his current horny-ness felt like with a completely nonplussed and unaffected Keith, he recognized that Keith was just trying to figure his shit out, and Lance could kind of sympathize with that. “There’s really no pain at all unless I spent the rest of tonight not doing anything about it, honestly.”

Keith nodded thoughtfully. “Okay… So, if you don’t do anything, what hurts?”

“Just my dick,” Lance answered honestly, but only after a long moment of silence as he tried to find a more graceful way to put it. But there was really nothing. “That’s all. Maybe I feel a little frustrated? But nothing like you described.”

“Oh.” Keith fell into thoughtful silence again. This was a lot to process. Being horny sounded like such a walk in the park compared to his personal burning monthly urges. How did the Galra cope? Maybe they were stronger against it than he was… with discipline and resolve. Suddenly, Keith looked a bit green in the cheeks. “Lance, I’m gonna… huuuhn… hrrrm…” He slapped his hand over his mouth.

“Oh jeez,” Lance said, waving his hands and looking around the room. He located Keith’s trash can and shoved it into his lap, taking the pillow away again so Keith didn’t barf all over it.

Just in time, too. Keith puked right into the trash can with a thick splashing sound. He coughed and gagged, attempting to catch his breath before the next round of bile came gurgling up. There came the wet sound of sick splattering on top of sick. It coated his teeth and dripped from his chin. Even Keith’s eyes were wet from tears of pain due to his stomach muscles contracting so hard.

Lance hazarded a glance over towards Keith’s bathroom. Should he try moving him? Who knew if he was going to vomit enough to overflow the trashcan? But maybe moving him would upset his stomach more or cause him to lose it all over the floor. So, unsure of what to do, he decided to do the same as he did last time, sliding his hand over Keith’s forehead and back to keep his hair out of the puke, and using his other hand to rub small circles on the other teen’s lower back.

Keith filled one-fourth of the trash can before he stopped vomiting. He sat there clinging to the damn thing like a life preserver and breathing heavily. His nose dripped, his mouth and chin were a mess, and there were tear stains on his cheeks. Keith was one hot ticket. When he felt confident enough to stand, he took the puke bucket into the bathroom with him where he attempted to clean it and himself despite his head swimming and stomach still a little queasy.

Lance trotted after him, feeling wholly useless. Keith was right—this was a process that was totally contained within his own body. Lance could only do so much. But he was determined to find little ways he could help, which right now, boiled down to him searching through the bathroom until he found the tissues, and bringing them over to Keith so he could wipe all the various fluids from his face.

“Thanks.” Keith pulled a few tissues from the box and started cleaning his face. The odor from the trash can wafted up to him, making him gag and spasm. “Um… Would you mind cleaning that for me?” he asked, obviously not proud to ask the other teen to wash out his barf. “Just rinse it all down the tub or something.”

“Sure,” Lance said, sounding much calmer and more mature than the disgusted expression that twisted across his face. He grabbed the trash can with two fingers, holding it far away from himself as he brought it over to the tub and plunked it down, turning on the water so the can filled up with it. He wanted to say something more, but what was there to say? “I’m sorry my baby batter did this to you,” he said, out loud, which was _not_ what he meant to do with his hypothetical statement, but there it was.

Keith froze and very slowly turned towards Lance. “You’re sorry about your _what?”_

“Baby batter,” Lance repeated, as if Keith didn’t hear him. And then, “_Jizz_,” he stressed, to clarify his statement.

Keith made a stopping motion with his hand. “Yeah, Lance, I know what it is. Nothing you’re saying right now is making me feel better. You don’t need to apologize, okay? We didn’t know this could happen. Neither one of us is to blame.” He finished cleaning his face and then got ready to brush his teeth. “When you’re done with that, you could also be helpful by getting an anti-emetic patch for me from my belt pack.”

Lance nodded his head dumbly, wandering into the bedroom and searching around until he found the belt, angrily discarded on the floor. He fished around in the pack until he found what he was looking for, bringing it back to Keith and putting it on the counter next to the tissue box. He then sat himself down on the toilet, frowning at Keith’s profile as he watched the other teen brush his teeth, dark eyes focused on the belly swelling out against his shirt. They’d already talked about this, but Lance was again noticing just how _big_ Keith looked compared to the last time they really spoke more than two words to each other. “Are you going to the med bay and seeing how many there are?” he asked, quietly.

“I already said it’s probably just twins,” Keith replied, words warbled a bit with his mouth full of foamy toothpaste. Spit, rinse, scrub the tongue, spit and rinse again. Ah, much better. “I’m a young, svelte, human male. Don’t you think it makes sense my stomach would stick out like a sore thumb?” He peeled the backing off the anti-emetic patch and then stuck it to his upper arm. Keith wished it took less than twenty minutes for the thing to work, but he always felt worlds better once it did.

“Just want to know how many onesies to buy when I go clothes shopping,” Lance said, managing a crooked smile to mask his disappointed expression. If he was being honest, he just wanted to know. Know for sure. But Keith was never one to make things easy— that much was apparent from how long he quietly vomited by himself before being forcibly stuffed in a med pod suit and examined. He tore his eyes away from Keith so the other teen wouldn’t notice his staring, going back to the tub and dumping out the water in the trash can so he could fill it again a couple more times until the metal can was totally cleaned out. He turned it upside-down so the water would drain, and then hedged his way over towards the door. “So… I’m going to go,” he suddenly announced. “I have some stuff to take care of.” _Like this half-chub. That you ignored when I brought it up._ “And… y’know.” _Y’know, I also need to lick my wounds since when I mentioned to you that I only flirted with people I wanted to date, you ignored that too and admitted Shiro was your second choice_. “I’ll bring you back those shirts you asked for as soon as I can. You want pants too?”

“Wait a minute.” Keith hastily checked his teeth and tongue in the mirror, did a breath smell test into his cupped hand, and then approached Lance, pushing the lanky teen up against a wall. Keith then got down on his knees and started undoing Lance’s jeans. His expression was one of calm determination. He didn’t frown or anything, but he didn’t grin eagerly either. He was on a mission. A Lance mission.

“Whoa, hey,” Lance said, not expecting the sudden turn of events. His back hit the wall and his eyes widened when Keith dropped to his knees. He opened his mouth to say something more, but he found the words dried up on his tongue when he did.

Keith tugged on the skinny jeans until exposing Lance’s blue briefs. _Of course_ he would buy underwear that matched his original lion. “I would’ve before,” Keith explained as he drew the other boy out of the flap in the briefs. “But then I threw up and I didn’t think you’d want puke mouth all over your dick.” He worked the length in his hand to get it from half-chub to full-chub before getting to the good part. “Sorry, though.”

“Sorry? No, no, no need to apologize...” Lance babbled, unable to stop himself once Keith’s hands were on him like that, little gasps punctuating his sentences. “I just thought… Well, now that we’ve made this whole heat cycle discovery, you can’t possibly be horny too, right?”

Keith hummed, thinking. “I don’t have any sensations between my legs or in my stomach, no. But… That emotional magnetism I talked about is there. I’m sexually driven to make sure you’re happy and satisfied. It’s not like I feel obligated, if that’s what it sounds like. Maybe I’m not explaining it right…” Lance’s erection came to full attention in almost record time. “What I mean is, if you feel good, then I feel good, whether it’s emotional or physical or sexual or anything.”

“Okay,” Lance didn’t sound entirely convinced, but it wasn’t like he was about to argue. How had he _never_ noticed that Keith was in heat every time before this? This Keith was so much more like what he usually was like. Calm, collected, composed, even with Lance’s dick in his hands. This was so much different from the needy, wanting, almost sex-high Keith he’d seen half a dozen times over the last six months. “I know it brought you relief, but I really hope I wasn’t somehow taking advantage of you being in heat… before,” he said, even though now was really _not _the time to be having such a conversation, his body shuddering against the wall when Keith’s hand stroked along his length.

Keith shook his head. “I came to you, Lance. I was in heat a few times before when we first came out here to space and I kept it to myself. First, I started to like you. Second, I chose you as my partner when I was in heat. You coming across me by accident when I was sexually vulnerable and using it to your advantage would have been the wrong thing, but that’s not how it happened.” Thinking on it, Keith decided he needed to talk to Kolivan about mates. But enough about that. Licking his lips, he then slowly drew Lance into his mouth, lapping the underside of the arousal with the width of his tongue.

“Ah,” Lance gasped, gritting his teeth together and tilting his head back. All these things Keith was saying really made him think that instead of getting a blowjob, he should be having a serious heart-to-heart about what their feelings actually were. But… well, that also was not a good conversation to have while Keith had his dick in his mouth. Instead, he pushed it to the back of his mind for later, enjoying the pleasurable feeling radiating up his body and making his hips and limbs twitch.

Keith hoped Lance recognized his quasi-confession of monogamous affection. Yes, he said before that Shiro was his second choice, but that truly was out of pure necessity. Keith might’ve been with Shiro, but he’d think about Lance the whole time. It was just beyond painful and frustrating to remain alone during a heat cycle. Shit, he’d go to _Coran_ if it ever got bad enough. It all boiled down to animalistic biology versus human emotions. Keith wanted to balance the two as best he could.

A pale hand slipped up through the leg hole of the blue briefs and teased the soft skin where thigh met groin. Keith’s lips pursed around Lance’s shaft just before bobbing his head up and down in a steady rhythm.

“Shit,” Lance moaned, his hands coming to perch in Keith’s long hair. Thin fingers scratched approvingly at his scalp. “You’re too fucking good at this, Keith. Damn...”

Keith hummed as a reply, sending vibrations up through Lance’s length. He lapped the warm width of his tongue all around the other boy’s arousal and then started swallowing, really getting it deep into the back of his throat.

Lance panted, breath coming in hot, heavy bursts. His eyes closed and one of his feet kicked backwards, pawing at the wall. He was close, he could feel it, just a little more... And then Keith hollowed out his cheeks and Lance finally came, bending forwards over Keith and his body shuddering with the climax.

It was the first time Keith did this with a clear head. So now he noticed for the first time how wordless Lance was during these moments. Like sex was the only thing that could shut him up. File that away for later. Keith also noted for the first time all the ways Lance shivered, twitched, spasmed, and squirmed while feeling pleasure. He closed his eyes when that tan stomach pressed against his forehead, and he smirked with the knowledge that he basically made Lance buckle towards the floor. After swallowing, he pulled back—hands holding the other teen’s hips—and smirked ever so slightly. “It’s sort of funny that this just happens to you randomly.”

Lance laughed, but it was weakened by the post-orgasm glow settling warmly in his chest like a sleepy cat. “You would find that funny,” he mused, letting his knees give out and sliding down onto the floor in front of Keith, after bonelessly fixing himself back into his jeans. They sat in silence for a moment, but true to Keith’s prediction, without the preoccupation of sex, Lance couldn’t let there be quiet for long. “Well, you totally ruined my evening plans of a tearful jerk-off session and maybe some unhealthy pining,” he joked, shaking his head, unbelieving how disarmed he was by Keith suddenly acting off his timetable. “We should maybe talk about that now that you’re done blowing my mind.”

Keith’s smirk grew enough to show his teeth. “Talk about you crying and masturbating at the same time? Sure. You must go through twice as many tissues.”

“Very funny. You’re full of jokes now, huh? Is that what happens when you suck me off?” Lance said, punching Keith’s shoulder weakly. The other boy’s smile was infectious in its rarity; Lance couldn’t help but smile back. “I mean about the _pining_, genius. Clearly both of us have some communicating we’ve neglected here.”

“Have we?” Keith asked, his expression becoming innocently and genuinely clueless. “Are you saying you like me more than you like all the other people you flirt with?”

“Yes, oh my god,” Lance chuckled, bringing his hands up to cup either of Keith’s cheeks, amazed that anyone could look so confused about where they stood romantically with someone right after giving them a blowjob... while pregnant with their children, no less. Only Keith. “I flirt a lot, but I never did this casual sex thing before you, Keith. And that’s because I like you a lot,” he said, letting his voice change from incredulous and amused to soft and genuine before that confession slipped out. “And unless I’m misinterpreting what you said before, it sounds like you like me back?”

Keith blushed when Lance cupped his face. _Oh._ His own hands raised up to hold Lance’s wrists, just so he could be touching the other teen too. “I like you, yeah.” Keith thought about the best way to explain himself. “Being in heat is super intense. I feel out of control. I know I said Shiro was my second choice, but only like… choosing between him and feeling like I’m dying. Thinking of you first, though… when I’m so vulnerable and out of control… means I put a lot of trust in you, Lance. I trusted you the most to get me through what was happening to me. I really, _really_ like you.”

Lance laughed and shook his head again. Those words made his heart travel up to his throat involuntarily and the tips of his ears burn red. He never quite pictured this confession post-coitus on the floor of Keith’s bathroom, but whatever. “All this _and_ you’re pregnant with my kids. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be dating already.”

“Well, the war and everything,” Keith suggested.

“Sure, whatever,” Lance said, brushing it off like in this moment, the war mattered about as much as what either of them had for breakfast that morning. When Keith just kept staring at him expectantly, Lance stared back, waiting for him to say something to the effect of _“yes Lance, you sexy so-and-so, let us please date from this point onward”__,_ but nothing came out of Keith's mouth. So Lance let out another amused puff of breath, shoulders sagging, and dragged Keith in by his still-held face to kiss him.

Keith returned the kiss and even leaned into it. This was their first kiss when he didn’t feel like his skin wasn’t trying to crawl off his own bones. Kissing was nice. When they pulled apart, Keith was smiling one of his subtle smiles. “We’re boyfriends now, right?”

“Yeah,” Lance said, his own smile practically threatening to split his face in contrast to Keith's tiny quirk of the lips, bumping their foreheads together. He let his hands fall away from Keith's face, curling around until he hooked Keith's hands and could twine their fingers together.

Keith squeezed Lance’s hands and let their foreheads rest against each other for a while. Dark eyes drifted downwards to the belly just beginning to occupy his lap. Twins was wishful thinking. “If you go get Coran… I’ll get dressed for the pod so we can find out how many there are.”

“Really?” Lance asked, looking surprised and squeezing Keith's hands back then. “You sure you're okay?”

“No,” Keith answered honestly. “But I… we… shouldn’t go through this blindly. The only way for me to stay safe and make the best decisions is to know everything I can about what’s happening.”

Lance searched Keith's face for only a moment before he was convinced. “Okay,” he said. He pushed his way up the wall and then offered a hand to Keith to help him up, too. “Just one second; I'll be back really quick,” he assured the other teen, as if he was going on some dangerous mission, before practically sprinting out the door to go find Coran.

Keith was about to shout that he meant for Lance to bring Coran to the infirmary, but he was already gone. Oh well. They’d figure it out. He left his room, heading for medical where he could change into one of the white pod suits.


	4. Babies On Board

“Hoooly smokes.”

Keith went stiff as a board when he saw Hunk standing in the med bay with Lance. Coran was also there, getting one of the pods ready. “What are you doing here?!” he gasped and tried slouch-hiding himself like when Lance walked in on him.

“Should I not be here? Lance said I could be here.” Hunk pointed both index fingers at the Blue Paladin. “He said you were gonna find out how many babies you’re having. That’s big news! We all know you’re pregnant, so what’s there to hide, right? Plus, I’m gonna be their uncle, so I feel like I should be here.”

Keith arched an eyebrow. “You’re their uncle?”

Hunk smiled one of his big, sweet, excited smiles. “Sure! We’re all a family, right? Calling myself their big brother is a stretch, so uncle is a much better title. Uncle Hunk. Has a nice ring to it.”

Lance smiled guiltily. “He and Coran were working on something together when I kinda... burst into the room,” he admitted, scratching at the short hairs on the back of his neck.

Keith glared over at Lance despite his explanation. Knowing it was a losing battle, Keith unwrapped his arms from around his torso. He saw Hunk’s eyes go wide. “Shut up.”

“I didn’t say anything!”

“Shut. Up.”

“Right! Pod’s all set. Keith, once you’re in, it should only take a few ticks to find out how many babies you’ve got on board,” Coran announced.

Keith groaned. “Everybody’s full of clever things to say, aren’t they?” He climbed into the pod and let himself settle against the padding. The glass door closed over him, sealed with a quiet hiss, and started scanning.

Hunk glanced over at Lance. “That’s not twins. You know that.”

“I know that,” Lance agreed, bringing his hand up to his mouth and chewing on two of his knuckles, already nervous about what the machine might say. “I think he knows that, too. The question is just how _many_.”

“_Stop it,”_ Keith mouthed at Lance in reference to him gnawing on his knuckles. They were screening for babies, not cancer.

The pod beeped. “Here we go,” Coran said, tapping a few buttons on the glass. Like before, a pink outline appeared around Keith. A secondary set of outlines again showed the bottom half of his lungs, his stomach, part of his intestines, and the main attraction: his occupied womb. Another couple of button taps and the holoprojection zoomed in, revealing five fig-sized bodies huddled close together.

Hunk's eyes went wide again. “Ohhhh… man…”

Lance's jaw dropped open, stunned into silence for a few long moments. Then he started laughing, quietly at first and then louder and louder, the laugh itself sounding incredibly forced. “Hilarious, Coran!” he suddenly jeered, reaching his hand over and slapping the Altean across the back. “So funny. Really. I'm dying. But for real. Like, three, maybe, right?”

“Uhhh… I don’t think it’s a trick, Lance,” murmured Hunk.

“Too right,” Coran confirmed. “The scan is accurate. Keith is pregnant with five kits. Or babies. Or whatever you two decided to call them.”

Keith, meanwhile, counted the shapes for himself, and now he was staring straight ahead with a look on his face like he saw a ghost. A thousand-yard stare, some called it. His heart pounded away inside his chest while he tried to keep his breathing under control.

“Ahaha... aha...” Lance breathed, the laughter dying off into silence. Coran and Hunk were looking at him like he was crazy, concern clear in their eyes. Lance lifted his hand off Coran's back like he'd been burned, and then waved urgently at Hunk. “Catch me,” he said, before his knees buckled for the second time that day.

“Whoa, buddy!” Hunk stepped forward, catching Lance around the waist and hoisting him up.

Coran’s attention went back on Keith when the pod alerted him to the increasing signs of distress and panic._ Welp, this again._ The pod filled with gas and Keith’s eyes rolled back into his head right before he passed out. Coran folded the cuff on his glove to access the commlink on his wrist. “Attention Paladins. And Matt.” His voice echoed throughout the castle. “Team meeting in the mess hall immediately.”

“I'm just glad to be included,” Matt was saying when the door to the mess hall slid open, quieting the entire group as all eyes landed on Coran, looking frazzled, and Hunk, carrying Lance in his arms.

“What happened?!” Allura gasped, getting to her feet from the table and rushing over to them. It was so rare for something to happen that she didn't know about first. “Is he okay? And is Keith with you three?”

Hunk carefully maneuvered Lance into one of the chairs, positioning him with his arms atop the table and head resting on his hands. Lance had all the appearances of someone who fell asleep in class.

“Not at the moment, Princess. I actually called this meeting in regards _to_ Keith, and to a lesser extent, Lance as well. But mostly Keith. Please, everyone, take a seat.” Coran looked around at all the worried gazes trained straight on him. He cleared his throat. “A recent pod scan, conducted not ten minutes ago, revealed Keith is pregnant with a litter of five. The shock was too much for both of them, so Lance is now as you see him and Keith is currently in stasis.”

“Five?! Are you serious?!” Pidge blurted. Her glasses slid down her nose, emphasizing her gawked expression.

“Quite serious.”

Matt whistled, impressed.

“We made our own Voltron team,” Lance mumbled, laughing quietly and weakly at his own joke, directed towards the table.

“Is Keith going to be alright?” Shiro asked, unable to help the stern line that furrowed across his eyebrows.

“In the short run, I believe some sleep and supportive communication will help him overcome the shock,” Coran answered. “In the long run, I honestly don’t know… I’m guessing based on all your reactions that five offspring are an uncommon number among Earth humans?”

Pidge nodded. “Extremely. Without the aid of fertility drugs, it’s virtually unheard of on Earth. Even when it does happen, it’s not without high risks and complications.”

Coran hummed and stroked his mustache. “I see…”

“Well...” Allura said, putting her hand to her chin. “In the end, it's once again up to Keith to decide what he wants to do. We'll just have to... support him any way we can.”

“Even if he keeps them and they all arrive alright, raising five kids is no joke,” Matt added, opening his arms in a gesture of scale. “That takes a village, almost literally.”

“But hey, there are eight of us and only five of them,” Hunk said. “That’s still three extra pairs of hands. And now that we have the Coalition of Planets on our side, we practically have an entire galaxy of babysitters just one phone call away.”

Pidge leaned forward on the table and adjusted her glasses. “Voltron didn’t liberate those planets just so we could ask them to be part-time nannies for Galra hybrids,” she scoffed. “That’d be a huge abuse of power.”

“Let's worry about that after they get here,” Allura suggested, before finally coming over to Lance's side and patting his shoulder awkwardly. “Lance? Are you still with us? Are you okay?”

“I'm dying of cardiac arrest,” Lance answered, still mumbling.

“Do you think you need to go for a spell in a med pod?” Coran offered. “I can put on a spot of a chamomile tea and have it ready when you two come out of it.”

“Not... not literally, Coran,” Lance said, finally raising his head and looking at everyone, looking back at him. “I'll be okay. I'm shocked but I'm not upset. Just... very, very shocked.” Everyone still looked worried. “Hey, great news,” Lance said, clapping his hands together. “Keith and I are dating now. So that's good. Five kids, dating, not as bad as not dating, right?!”

Hunk’s large hand landed with a comforting grip on the back of Lance’s neck. “Yeah, that’s great, buddy. Even if you weren’t dating, that wouldn’t be bad. There’s no wrong way to have kids as long as you’re happy,” he said, trying to be as supportive as possible. He looked around at everyone else, hoping they would share his sentiment. “Dating is great, though. Dating is awesome.”

“It was most likely inevitable,” Pidge agreed. “Since they already had a sexual relationship, there was a 50/50 chance it would either evolve or fizzle out entirely. You two were made for each other, if you ask me.” She grinned. “Both of you stubborn, clueless, reckless idiots in your own rights. A match made in heaven.”

“Boy, thanks for that, Pidge,” Lance said, smiling a bit too widely with his teeth clenched together, hands still at the same position they ended the clap in.

“Congrats, you two,” Shiro said, nodding approvingly. “I'm glad you took that step without dragging your feet about it too much.”

“So, how long do humans date before they marry?” Allura asked innocently, which caused Lance to make a noise like he was choking on a drink he was decidedly not currently drinking.

Hunk looked completely blindsided. “Uhhhhh…”

“The timeline between courtship and marriage varies widely between couples,” Pidge answered. She laced her fingers together and let her chin rest atop them, her expression still coy as fuck. “Humans have been known to date for as little as four months before jumping into marriage. Others date for upwards seven to ten years before tying the knot. Variables such as education, careers, financial stability, traveling, willingness to commit, and level of affection all play a part. A select few humans never marry under judicial law, but they live together long enough that they enter a common law marriage.”

“Oh, I see!” Allura chimed, apparently content with that answer. She then pat Lance on the head. “Congratulations, Lance.”

“Hey, Coran, on second thought, I could go for that tea,” Lance said, as his entire face turned beet red.

“One spot of tea coming right up! Can I offer some to anyone else? Princess?”

Pidge waved her small hand. “I’ll take a cup.”

“I’m never one to turn down an offer for food or drink,” Hunk agreed.

“Cool, well, everyone's up to speed,” Lance said, standing up from his chair and again doing that wheezy, forced laugh. “I'm going to go... wait... for Keith to wake up, then.”

Hunk looked surprised and then a little disappointed. “You aren’t having tea with us?”

“Hunk, I love you, but I will have tea with all of you some other day when I haven't just found out that I'm about to become a father of five literally twenty minutes beforehand,” Lance said, putting a hand on Hunk's shoulder. Then he paused and ran both hands up into short hair. “_Father_ of _five_. My abuela would kill me if she knew. Just. Dead, in the ground. Here lies Lance. Ahahaha...”

“If you’re sure…” Hunk said, still looking worried for his friend. Lance was obviously having a nervous breakdown right now.

Coran brought Lance his tea in the infirmary along with a second cup for Keith when he woke up. The effects of the sleep gas lasted an hour again. Unlike previously, however, the pod made sure to slowly bring Keith out of stasis in an effort to reduce the risk to his pregnancy. Dark hazel eyes blinked open slowly until he realized he was still behind the glass. The pod was locked, reading his vitals and waiting until he was stable enough to be released, so Keith put his hand on the glass when he saw Lance sitting on the floor. He even tried saying hi before remembering they couldn’t really hear each other.

Lance noticed immediately when Keith woke up, sitting with his empty teacup and Keith's under a warmer. He waved, smiling sheepishly, waiting for the pod to let Keith go. Thankfully the hour had given him plenty of time to calm down, even though, in hindsight, he realized as soon as he sat in the med bay in silence by himself that it would have probably been easier if he sucked it up and let his friends help him through his meltdown. Oh well, it was done now.

After another ten minutes or so, the pod opened with a quiet hiss. Keith took a few deep breaths of fresh air before stepping down onto the floor. He walked over to Lance and sat beside him. “What’d I miss?” he asked, reading the other boy’s face like an open book.

“Oh, not much. Just everyone getting informed,” Lance said as casually as he could, which was not at all, his voice a step too high. “Me having a mini panic attack, but it's fine. I'm cool now. But you! You,” he insisted, turning towards Keith and gesturing at him with both hands. “How are you.”

Keith frowned worriedly. “You don’t seem fine. Do you want a turn in the pod? You said so yourself that stress counts as something the pod can heal. I don’t know what that gas is, but it makes you forget about _everything._ Panic attacks are nothing to sneeze at.”

“No, I—” Lance started to insist, only to see Keith's face drop into an unimpressed scowl. He hesitated, took in a huge breath, and then let it all out. “Okay, yeah, maybe... Maybe that's a good idea. Coran made you tea,” he said, pointing at it as he got to his feet. “You can... you can drink that while I. Go.”

“You’ll feel better,” Keith insisted, trying his best to sound comforting. “Take your own advice, right? I’ll be right here when you’re done.” He picked up the tea from beneath the warmer and sipped on it slowly.

“You're right,” Lance said, nodding and repeating that all the way to the other side of the room, and all the way through the process of taking off his clothes, putting on the white pod suit, folding his clothes, and getting into the newly vacated pod.

He wasn't in the pod as long as Keith had been, but it was long enough that Keith's teacup joined Lance's off to the side, empty. When Lance stepped out, he released a thankful breath, finding a much easier time of breathing in general. He pulled the exact same move as Keith, coming to sit next to his new boyfriend on the floor, now both of them dressed in the white skin-tight suits. “Okay.”

Keith couldn’t help glancing between Lance’s trim torso in the white suit and his own swollen belly in his suit. The difference was practically night and day. “I can’t help thinking that I’ll have to spend more and more time in these pods,” Keith finally said. “I might have to spend days or weeks at a time in one just to make sure we survive.” By which he meant himself and the babies.

“So there being five hasn’t changed your resolve to go through with this,” Lance said rather than asked, like he was just confirming information. “You’re probably right. That would be a safe move.” He opened his mouth to ask if Keith was okay with doing that, but he realized that he kept asking Keith if he was okay with things that neither of them really had any control over. So instead, he blurted, “Hey, is it okay if I...” Punctuated by him brandishing his hand hesitantly towards Keith’s rounded stomach.

“I’m going to do my best,” Keith confirmed. “I couldn’t possibly choose one or two of them over the others just to reduce the numbers to something safer. I know it’s a huge risk and I might not have a choice if things go wrong, but until then…” Surprise colored his features when Lance suddenly asked permission to touch his belly. It actually hadn’t occurred to Keith that it was something anyone else would want to do. “Oh, uh… Sure.” He leaned back on his hands, giving Lance enough room to feel around.

Lance hadn’t really planned out his angle of attack, so his hand sort of hovered awkwardly even once he got permission. But finally, he decided to just go for it, laying his hand over the shape disturbing the otherwise smooth line of Keith’s jumpsuit. The babies were still too small for him to really be feeling much of anything, so he wasn’t sure what to do, but he slowly scooted closer anyway, letting the first hand slide over to the right side of Keith’s belly, and the other come to rest on the left as he sat in front of his new boyfriend. “There’s _five_ of them in there,” he said as if Keith didn’t know, speaking in barely a whisper. “Can you believe that?”

Keith carefully watched Lance scoot closer and finally get both hands on either side of the swell. He didn’t watch closely out of distrust, but mainly because they never did this before. He wanted to study Lance’s face and get a read on his feelings. “No, I can’t,” Keith whispered in reply. “We saw them, but it still hardly seems real. It’s unprecedented for humans _and_ for Galra. I haven’t decided yet if karma is rewarding us or punishing us.”

Lance laughed at that, and the smile that came part and parcel with the laughter stayed on his face even after it quieted down. “I was telling everyone in the mess hall that my abuela would kill me,” he said, for want to fill the silence as he carefully rubbed his palms over the shape. “She’d say, ‘Five at once?! Are you crazy nieto?!’” His voice pitched up and took on a comedic elderly waver to mimic his grandmother. “She’d secretly be happy, though. She loves grandkids. Er... great-grandkids.”

“We’re giving them to her in spades,” Keith replied. He felt himself blushing while Lance’s hands moved across the generous curve of his stomach. This was weird, but also kinda nice. Weirdly nice. Maybe 60/40 weird to nice. “You speak Spanish fluently?” he chose to ask, also trying to fill any silence that tried creeping in between them.

“Yeah, I grew up speaking it,” Lance said, nodding. He wasn’t really sure what he was doing, and started blushing too when the silence stretched on. There was nothing that he could feel from the outside, so he was just resting his hands on Keith’s stomach, which was kind of awkward. But aside from when Keith was in heat, he’d never had permission to touch him for this long. Testing his luck, Lance scooted backwards a little bit, just so that he had enough space to lay his head down in Keith’s lap, ear pressed against his rounded stomach. “Most of the older members of my family don’t speak a lick of English, actually,” he added, again trying to keep the silence from weighing too heavily in the air.

Keith looked like a deer in headlights. He froze for a few seconds, unsure of what to do, but then he let one hand rest on Lance’s shoulder and the other tangle gently in brown hair. “I um… remember reading your dossier when we were both still in the Garrison. You grew up in Varadero, right? Cuba?”

“You read my dossier?” Lance asked, sounding somewhere between touched and confused. “Yeah, I did. Why were you reading my dossier?”

“We were in the same class. Doctored copies of everyone’s dossier were available for everyone else in the class to read. I think the better question is why you _weren’t_ learning about the people you’d service alongside someday. It’s the same reason I know Pidge is one-hundred percent Italian heritage and Hunk is from American Samoa.”

Lance laughed, closing his eyes, getting comfortable. “That was your cue to say, ‘oh, because I've been in love with you since I first saw you, Lance,’” he joked. “If you remember all this stuff from our dossiers, then that was a really harsh joke you pulled pretending not to know who I was when we met properly for the first time,” he added, pouting, though the fact that he was still laughing through his words betrayed the fact that he wasn't truly broken up about it.

“Correction: I knew you were that loud-mouthed Cuban spazz always gunning for my position as pilot,” Keith said with a smirk. “But you were still a nameless numb-skull in my book. I clearly recall you throwing tantrums to the commander that you’d make a better pilot than me. He thought you’d make a better marksman. As it turns out, he was right about both of us.”

“Hey,” Lance said, sticking his tongue out a little. “I'm still a pretty amazing pilot, if I do say so myself.”

“Sure, but I can still fly circles around you. Don’t you take a lot of pride in being the team marksman? You never miss the chance to brag about what a sharpshooter you are.” Keith shrugged, still smirking. “Even though, y’know, marksman are the soldiers too chicken to put themselves into real combat.”

“Ouch, my pride,” Lance sighed, putting a hand to his chest and over-dramatically swooning, arching his back and scooting up so he was lying completely across Keith's lap, his head on his thigh now. “You've wounded me, Keith. I'm dying.”

Keith laughed, hiding the smile and sound behind his hand. Even his belly wobbled a little bit he laughed so hard. “Don’t worry. I’ll just stick you back into one of the pods. You’ll be around long enough to endure many more years of taking my jabs to your ego.”

“Hey, wow,” Lance said, his voice getting soft and quiet as he relaxed back into Keith's lap. “I haven't seen you laugh like that in a while.”

Keith blushed at being called out on his uninhibited laughter. He turned his head, fixing his gaze on some arbitrary point across the room. “I think the last time was when you let that alien chick handcuff you to a tree in the middle of nowhere and hijacked Blue right out from under your nose.”

“I didn't _let _her do it,” Lance argued, but there was no bite to it, just amusement. He turned over, testing his boundaries one more time and snuggling his face against Keith's belly. “I'll let _you_ do it if you want to though, baby,” he added, peeking one eye open and smirking mischievously. “Is that a good enough cheesy line for you? Now you're not allowed to say I don't flirt with you ever again.”

Pink and red hues spread all the way to the tips of Keith’s ears. Lance snuggling his belly released a flock of butterflies behind his ribs. Again, it was embarrassing, but he wasn’t about to tell Lance he wasn’t allowed. That wouldn’t be fair. Innocently curious eyes looked down at the other boy and Keith pointed to himself. “Wait, were you talking to me or them?” he asked, pitifully thrown off by the use of the word “baby” in the flirt.

Lance couldn't help the giggles that sputtered out between his lips. “If I was telling my unborn children that they were allowed to put me in handcuffs in a flirty way, I'd say I deserved to be left tied to a tree in the middle of nowhere. Obviously I'm flirting with you.”

Keith frowned slightly. “You said ‘baby’ and are cuddled right up against my belly. It wasn’t _that_ obvious.” Despite his huffy pouting, he left his hand in Lance’s hair and even let his fingers scratch at his scalp a bit.

“There's _five_ of them though,” Lance stressed. “So they'd be 'babies', collectively.” He closed his eyes, smiling as he enjoyed the sensation of fingers scratching his scalp. “I'm still reeling over there being five,” he added with another little laugh.

“I can’t wrap my head around it,” Keith agreed. “Kolivan said it’s rare enough for full Galra, so how did it end up happening to me? I don’t even think I’m half-Galra. I mean, if Lotor is any indication of what a half-Galra looks like, then I think I’m more than one generation removed. He doesn’t have any of the fur, but he’s still purple and has their eyes. If my mom was full Galra, don’t you think I’d look more like Lotor?”

“Probably. Or maybe you just... happened not to get any aesthetic features from your mom? Seems unlikely but who knows.” He tilted his head into Keith's hand. “The way the babies look might give you your answer. If they're all pretty human looking, then that tells you that your Galra heritage is probably farther back on the family tree. But if some of them look even a little Galra, then that just means that some of the traits just didn't show up in you... That's how that works, right?”

Keith nodded. “More or less.” He was quiet for a little while, finally letting that silence settle over them. Obviously, he was thinking about something. “…Will your abuela still like them if… they look Galra?”

Lance peeked an eye open again. He could've fallen asleep with that soft hand petting his head and his face pillowed on Keith's thigh if the silence went any longer. “She's never seen an alien in her life, Keith,” Lance reminded him gently. “She'd be freaked out at first, probably. But, on the flip-side, that also means she doesn't really have any prejudices against specific aliens one way or the other.” Then he chuckled a little. “Hell, she's probably going to be more upset that they're not full Cuban. But she'll get over all of it in time. I think all of them will. To them, family's family, and family's most important.”

Keith felt a burning under his lower eyelids right before a few tears sprung up. “Damn it,” he hissed. It wasn’t like him at all to become emotional so quickly. Keith especially hated letting others see him vulnerable. Shiro caught him on occasion, but never to the point of crying about something. He immediately wiped his eyes with the heel of his palm.

Lance's eyes immediately widened, and he straightened himself up so he was sitting upright again. He didn't even bother turning himself around, just twisting his torso so he was facing Keith. “Whoa, hey, what's wrong?” He quickly brought his hands to his boyfriend's shoulders. “Is it something I said? I'm stupid, I'm sorry. Hey...”

“No,” Keith answered, shaking his head. “I mean, yes, but you didn’t say anything wrong. It’s nothing. I’m being stupid,” he insisted. “I don’t even know why I’m crying.”

Lance frowned, unsure what to do with that information. “You're not being stupid,” he insisted to start, glancing around the med bay. They were still sitting on the floor in these white suits with the harsh medical lighting beaming down on them. “Do you... want to get changed and go lie down? Maybe you'll feel better. And we can talk some more if you want. Or not. Whatever's fine.”

Keith nodded. “Yeah, that sounds good. Help me up?” Even with Lance’s help getting onto his feet, he still stumbled into the other teen’s arms. Keith’s new belly was starting to upset his sense of balance. He apologized and righted himself so they could go change back into their normal clothes. Putting back on a shirt that didn’t fit was another reminder of the five kits growing inside him. When they went back to his room and the door opened, Keith couldn’t help telling himself he’d have to get up the courage to visit other parts of the castle again. He couldn’t spend his entire pregnancy just going back and forth between his bedroom and the infirmary. That wasn’t a life. He got into bed and scooted closer to the wall so there was room enough for Lance too.

It only occurred to Lance once he was about to climb into Keith's bed how rarely he was allowed on it. Usually, when the other teen sought him out for sex, Keith would come find him in his room, and most of the time he left right afterwards instead of sticking around to cuddle. Keith didn't seem like much of a cuddler. But Lance most certainly was, so he couldn't help grinning as he slid into the side that was freed up for him, lying down next to Keith and turning onto his side. The only thing that made that smile falter a little was getting an eyeful of Keith, still blinking at stray tears and wiping them away before they could fall. He opened his mouth to ask what was wrong again, but Keith already told him that he didn't really know. So, unable to do much else, Lance took Keith's hand, twining their fingers together again.


	5. Lunch and a Show

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> keith doesn't super understand being ace in this chapter. forgive him, for he is but a babby.

True to his word, Lance went on a run to a galaxy mall for more shirts and pants. He returned with exactly what Keith needed in young masculine cuts, regaling an excited story of finding at least three maternity stores for masculine aliens and the patrons shopping in them, all obviously dudes to some degree. It gave Keith a very vague sense of relief that he wasn’t as much of a freak as he felt. At least, not in the grand scheme of the universe and all the other aliens inhabiting it.

Lance even had the decency to stick with black and grey clothing, even though he admitted certain colors tempted him.

Keith was on his way—alone—to the mess hall for some lunch. He was a little off schedule, trying to eat when he figured the other Paladins were doing other things in other parts of the castle. The new clothing fit him much better, but there was no hiding or disguising his stomach anymore. The mess hall door opened and Keith mis-stepped when he saw Shiro at the table eating a meal of green and purple goop. Perfect.

“Oh, hey Shiro.”

“Hey,” Shiro responded, looking surprised to see Keith, too. He immediately put his utensils down and gestured at the seat across from him before Keith could run away. “Sit, I feel like I haven't seen you in a while.”

“Just give me a minute.” Keith got himself a plate and went to one of the dispensers, getting himself a generous portion of orange gelatin. If there was one thing he knew, it was to not skimp on meals when eating for six. He sat down at the table once he grabbed a spoon. “Um, yeah. Been awhile. Everyone’s been busy establishing the Coalition and visiting all the new planets. Is Coran still having you all do those skits?”

“No, thankfully he let up on those. The parades and sky shows are still a mainstay, though.” Shiro examined Keith with all the scrutiny of a concerned parent, trying to read his expression as the teen dutifully kept his eyes on his lunch. “How have you been these last few weeks?”

Keith shrugged. “Some aches and pains in my back and knees. I’m tripping over my own feet a lot, too.” He resisted making eye contact with Shiro. Keith anticipated the older pilot to lecture him about safe sex and making better choices and being more responsible. “Lance visits me way more often. He’s worried about me.”

“He's not the only one,” Shiro answered, raising his eyebrows. “All of us would like to know that you're doing alright, Keith.” Still no eye contact. “Keith.”

The spoon was halfway to his mouth when Shiro said his name insistently a second time. Keith took a deep breath and finally looked up, making eye contact with Shiro. “Yeah?”

“If you’re anticipating a lecture, I’m afraid you’re going to be sorely disappointed,” Shiro said, smiling a soft, knowing smile. “But I would like to persuade you to stop avoiding everyone besides Lance.”

“Seriously?” Keith raised a skeptic eyebrow. “This feels _exactly_ like a situation in which you’d jump on the chance to lecture me about the decisions I’ve made. Unless you’re saving it for the worst possible time. Getting me while I’m throwing up would suck. But waiting until I’m in labor to dish out a big fat ‘this is what happens’ speech would be a huge dick move. You’re not really about dick moves, though.”

Shiro shrugged his shoulders slightly. “I’m feeling generous.” Keith kept looking at him skeptically, and Shiro couldn’t resist a little chuckle. “For what it’s worth, I think you’ve handled the situation pretty maturely thus far. And while you probably shouldn’t have been… sleeping together without protection,” he said with a little cough, unable to resist the tiny mini-lecture even in the middle of praising Keith, “It’s not like you could have seen this coming.” He paused then, taking his own turn to raise a skeptical eyebrow. “Unless you _did _know this could happen and just hoped it wouldn’t apply to you and kept doing what you were doing anyway?”

“_No,_” Keith grunted, offended and defensive. “If I had _any_ idea this could happen, I would’ve taken extra steps to make sure it didn’t happen to me. Believe me; I’d much rather be out there helping plot our next move or training with the Blade right now than waiting for the day when I can’t see my own feet anymore, which will be too soon.” He poked at the gelatin with his spoon idly. “Lance made it painfully obvious that I’ve been going through heat cycles since puberty. If I’d known that, and known I was Galra, my actions up to this point would have been very different.”

“Precisely why I didn’t hunt you down and chew your ear off about this sooner,” Shiro said, again shrugging. “You sometimes act on emotion, Keith, but you never ignore a possible outcome and hope for the best. So I felt pretty safe in assuming that you would have been a bit more cautious if you weren’t just figuring all of this out for the first time right now. Really, my only concern now is that we’re going weeks without seeing hide nor hair of you.”

“It was a huge shock,” Keith said honestly. “I needed time to process my thoughts and feelings, and I do that best when I’m by myself. Yes, I’m also embarrassed and not very keen on letting everyone see me like this, but that wasn’t the only reason. Some days I was really sick so I didn’t want to leave my room. You all have been gone doing Voltron PR stuff. It’s just been a mixed bag of things. Lance comes around wanting to be _really_ cuddly and… I guess I’m kinda into it. He’s a nice distraction.” Keith sighed. “It’s nothing intentional against the team. I promise. My head has just been in other places.”

“I understand,” Shiro responded, finally conceding to Keith’s reasoning and letting the topic drop. He waited until Keith was actually eating his meal again before he tried to get them into further conversation. “So, things with Lance are going well, then?”

Keith swallowed his current mouthful before speaking. “He’s just as excitable, but he doesn’t pick fights with me nearly as often, which is great. It was exhausting always going head-to-head with him. He asks me how I am and what he can do for me. He’s very affectionate, like I said. He likes holding my hand, snuggling with my belly, cuddling next to me, lying in my lap, touching my face… I’m not saying I dislike any of it, but I’ve never experienced something like that before from another person.”

Shiro nodded his head along with everything Keith said. “Glad to hear you two are getting along.” Then he smiled a little, still soft and subtle. “Lance has been in a particularly good mood for weeks. When we form Voltron, it’s almost a tad overwhelming.”

“I thought he’d still be scared and freaking out. He remarks all the time about ‘holy cow, there’s five of them’ like it’s something a panicked person would say, but he’s got this big dumb smile on his face and he rubs his hands all over my stomach. Again, I’m not mad that he’s so happy. I don’t mind how he is. Like I said though… I’m not used to other people being like that to me or about me or anything to do with me. The degree to which Lance is excited about the kits and having me for a boyfriend almost doesn’t seem real to me.”

“He’s an enigma, that’s for sure,” Shiro agreed, chuckling around his spoon. “After that big panic attack he had, I kind of expected him to be weird about things for a little while. But he bounced back really fast. Whatever you’ve been doing is working for him, Keith. I’m proud of you.”

Keith shook his head. “I haven’t been doing anything,” he argued. “I just… let him do what he wants. Not that I let him do anything that makes me uncomfortable just for the sake of making him happy. I still won’t put up with that from anyone. All I mean is… I’m not doing anything special. I don’t even reciprocate his cuddliness to the same degree that he gives it to me. He never seems disappointed, which is good. I do what I can in my own way. I guess just… I don’t have any memories whatsoever of my mom. I only remember bits and pieces of my dad. Foster care passed me around like a hot potato, so it’s not like I was ever in one place long enough to learn bonding with one or more people. Affection comes so naturally to Lance. I just… let it happen.”

“Just remember that Lance likes you as _you_, Keith. He probably didn’t expect a lot of affection to begin with, no offense. You letting him do whatever he wants is probably good enough for him, based on his expectations.” Shiro contemplated that for a moment. “Though you probably wouldn’t go awry indulging him every once in a while, and try doing something to reciprocate. But that’s up to you.”

_Ugh_. Space dad was using his space dad powers again to make his sons open up around him. “I get teamwork,” Keith said. He started gesturing with his hands. “I wasn’t psyched about teamwork in the beginning, but I get it now. Friendship, y’know, I’m still working on. Other than you, I don’t really know everyone on a personal level as much as you all know each other. I get smiles and shoulder touches and victory hand clasps. Comradery. Comradery is easy. I don’t… think I know how to indulge or reciprocate with a boyfriend. That’s a whole other level of… interactive relationship that I know nothing about.”

“I'm not exactly a relationship expert myself, but that sort of proves the point I'm about to make,” Shiro responded, leaning back in his chair a little. “Nobody knows what they're doing the first time they're in a relationship. Even kids who copy their parents are not really getting a good idea about what it's like to be in a relationship, because parents act so differently around their children than they do when it's just them. Just do what feels right, Keith. Ask for him to do things for you that you enjoy, and try doing some things for him that you think he'd like without having to be asked. That's all.”

“Right…” Keith hummed, sounding entirely unsure. He poked at his food a bit more before digging into it again. Nothing screamed nutrition for growing kits like bright orange space gelatin.

Shiro seemed to pick up on Keith's train of thought, also eyeing the food goo. “Do you think maybe Lance should try bringing you back some foods from the various planets we land on?”

Keith nodded. “That’d be worth a shot, yeah.” Food wasn’t the only thing on his mind. He was still hung up on the comment about doing things Lance would like without having to ask Keith to do them. “Shiro, how can you tell when a person wants you to do something intimate with them? I don’t necessarily mean sex stuff. Even just touching or kissing. If I’m supposed to anticipate Lance wanting something without him saying it, how do I know?”

“That depends on the person,” Shiro said with another shrug, as he mixed his own meal around on his plate, trying to get both colors on his spoon at once, even if it didn't do much for the flavor. “You probably know Lance better than anyone else on this ship, Keith. If anyone's going to be able to tell, it's you. Don't worry if you don't get it right away, but just try watching him sometimes. You'll be able to figure it out if you study long enough.”

“Pretty sure Hunk still knows him better than I do,” Keith muttered. If Hunk wasn’t such a firm Ace, he was convinced Hunk and Lance’s bromance would have turned into a legit romance by now. “Can I ask you something really personal, Shiro? Lance gave me one answer, but… I want to test his answer against yours.”

“Sure, go for it,” Shiro said easily, turning his hand up towards Keith. “What is it?”

Keith rubbed the back of his neck, hesitated, but then asked, “What does it feel like when you’re horny?”

Shiro's eyebrows drew together, his mouth falling open a little. He clearly hadn't been expecting that. He brought his hand to his mouth, coughing into his fist. “Um. Well...” His other hand nervously raked through white hair. “I guess it's like... Well. A heightened pulse, perhaps blood rushing to the face, tightness in the, uh... Primary sex characteristics? All in response to... some sort of stimuli, typically.” Shiro sounded profoundly uncomfortable as he tried to dance around the words that Lance had been so quick to just lay out on the table.

“Stimuli…” Keith mumbled, _that_ being the word he focused on above anything else. Lance used the exact same word. For full humans, it all seemed to be about something external causing an internal reaction. Shiro was obviously uncomfortable, but Keith greatly appreciated his friend’s candidness. “Okay. Thanks.”

“You're welcome?” Shiro asked rather than said, seemingly confused about what Keith had gotten from that. When Keith didn't follow up any further, Shiro let out a breath and dug back into his meal.

A few beats of silence. “So is it the same for Hunk and Matt, too? If I asked them, would they give me the same answer? I guess Hunk might not… I dunno… but Matt would say the same thing?”

Shiro again furrowed his eyebrows. “I don't want to think about that. But yes, probably?” He wracked his brain for what this could possibly be about, and it took him only a few seconds to come to a conclusion once he got over the awkwardness and really thought about it. “Is this something to do with your alien heritage, Keith? Have you tried asking Coran?”

Keith appeared wholly confused by the suggestion. “No? I’m not Altean.”

“Sure,” Shiro answered, nodding. “But Coran can tell you about more than the Alteans. This ship's full of information on all kinds of species, he might be able to give you access to some solid scientific databases where you can read up for yourself.”

“I could… but I don’t think Allura would like it if I used the castle’s database to do Galra research.” Keith gestured with his hands like two opposite sides of a scale. “It turns out I’ve been experiencing one thing my whole life that I thought was something all human guys dealt with, but it turns out you all go through something very different. Lance was pretty adamant about the whole thing, but he’s just one human. I wanted to confirm with at least one other, which is why I asked you.”

“I see,” Shiro said, waiting for more explanation. When it didn't come, he crossed his arms and leaned forward, curious. “And you experience what, exactly?”

“Every month at the beginning of the month, I get this ache between my legs and it feels like my stomach is stuck in a vice. I get hot, like all feverish, and I’ll break into sweats if it’s bad enough. I feel like if I don't have sex, then best-case scenario is that I get really sick, and worst-case scenario is that I die. Not that I actually would, but it feels that way. Masturbating only gives me relief for a few minutes before the pain starts up again. Usually it lasts for an entire week, or until I have sex, and then it goes away. Sometimes at night, I can’t help but break down crying because of this excruciating, searing, consuming urge eating away at me from the inside.”

Shiro cleared his throat again, uncomfortable with the frank language Keith was using, but unwilling to interrupt him. “So, it sounds like the Galra experience some kind of heat cycle, and it got applied to you as well,” he said, nodding slowly. “Not surprising, considering how the rest of your reproductive system appears to work,” he said, gesturing at Keith's stomach hidden under the table. “I can assure you that it's not just Lance and I; humans don't have any sort of monthly cycle like that. Well, not human males. Human females do, but it has little to nothing to do with being horny, even though it's still linked to reproduction. Theirs is more about... well, it's about the body preparing itself for a baby, which I guess is what the heat cycle is doing, too...”

Keith cast a deadpan glare at the Black Paladin. “I know what a woman’s period is, Shiro, and no, that’s not what I go through.” He sighed. “My eggs just go unused until the whole thing starts over again. I told Lance, though, that I haven’t felt that way once since I got pregnant.”

“How am I supposed to assume that?” Shiro answered, defending himself. “And, I mean, of course you haven’t. You already completed the point of the heat cycle, didn’t you? It wanted you to go forth and… procreate.”

“I’m worried…” Keith admitted. “That without my heat cycle… I won’t… want to have sex even if Lance does. If it’s impossible for me to get the urge, no matter what I try or what we’re doing… I don’t want him to take it personally. And if Lance _does_ want to have sex while my body is completely unresponsive, should I try anyway? I know these are loaded questions, Shiro. I’m sorry. I just don’t want to hurt Lance or disappoint him or frustrate him, y’know?”

“Don’t apologize. It’s important that you talk to someone about this,” Shiro said, shaking his head. “As for your situation with Lance, if Lance wants to date you, he needs to accept that this is part of how you function. Don’t force yourself to do anything you don’t want to do, Keith. If he’s as serious about this as I think he is, then he’ll learn to live with it. And if he forces you to do _anything_,” he stressed, putting an accusatory finger up. “Tell me and I’ll set him straight.”

Keith actually chuckled softly. “I don’t think it’s at all in Lance’s nature to do something like that. He even told me he was afraid having sex with me while I was in heat was somehow taking advantage of me, and he was very apologetic.” He looked up at the older pilot. “But yeah, I’ll tell you if he tries anything.”

Shiro laughed too. This entire conversation blindsided him—none of these concepts were things he ever expected to be talking about Keith with. But it was nice. It had only been a few weeks and Keith seemed more open and honest than ever before. “I’ll see where we’re supposed to go for our next Voltron peace event. Make sure Lance picks you up some local cuisine so you’re not just eating goo this entire time.”

“I definitely like the sound of that.” Keith slapped his spoon atop the goo and wrinkled his nose as he watched it jiggle on the plate. Not very appetizing for someone who still suffered from morning sickness. “Hunk says he’s going to be their uncle. Do you feel the same way?”

“Oh,” Shiro answered, like he hadn’t thought about it yet. “I like the sound of that, if you and Lance are okay with it, yeah.”

“Lance has made it pretty clear he’s all about family, so I think he’s more than okay with it,” Keith replied before eating another few spoonfuls of gelatin. Just because it wasn’t appetizing didn’t mean he was allowed to not eat it.

“Well, I'm honored, Keith,” Shiro said, standing up with his now-empty plate to clear it away. “And I feel like you guys might not mind the extra set of hands, so let me know how I can help, okay?”

“Keep an eye on Lance and make sure he doesn’t go crazy shopping for baby stuff too soon,” Keith instructed. “He just needs to focus on clothes and food for me right now. And keep me well-stocked with anti-emetic patches.”

“Sure,” Shiro laughed. “I'll try my best. He's easily excited, though.”

After stomaching the remainder of his lunch, Keith decided to try his hand at this whole 'being unexpectedly affectionate' thing. He just hoped Lance was in his room. The Blue Paladin wasn’t at all the type to lock his door, so it just _whooshed_ open when Keith got close enough. He poked his head inside and peeked around for his new boyfriend.

Lance didn't appear to be in his bedroom, but the light coming from his open bathroom door suggested he was there. And indeed, he appeared in the bathroom doorway just a moment later, dressed in a robe and with his face partially covered by a moisturizing mask, looking for whomever opened his bedroom door. His eyes lit up instantly when he saw Keith. “Hey!”

Oh what fresh hell was this? “I can… come back later,” Keith offered and thumbed over his shoulder down the hallway. “You’re obviously in the middle of… _something._”

“Come on, it's just a moisturizing mask,” Lance sighed, rolling his eyes and walking over to the door, dragging Keith inside by his forearms. “I'll be done and washing it off in a little bit, okay? Now, what's up?”

“Um, well… I actually just came to uh… just do this.” Keith stepped forward and, unsure, wrapped his arms around Lance’s body and leaned in for _the most_ awkward hug in the history of hugs.

“Uh,” Lance responded, unsure of what exactly was going on. He awkwardly lifted his own hands up and patted Keith on the shoulders and lower back. “You okay?”

_Mission failed. Bail out. Bail out!_ “I’m fine. Thanks. …Okay then.” Keith pulled away, shoulders hiked and head lowered in his awkward as fuck turtle posture, and then turned to retreat as quickly as possible from the room.

Lance was left with a partially smeared face mask and two hands hovering unceremoniously in the air. “Wait, what? Where are you going?!” Lance called after Keith, leaning out of the bedroom and grabbing after Keith before he could vanish down the hallway.

_Under a rock to die. Thanks for asking._ Keith turned around, but his arms were crossed tightly across his chest. “Shiro said I should try doing things you like without you having to ask me to do them. It’s become very obvious that you enjoy hugging and cuddling so I thought… I’d come give you a hug since you like hugs.”

Lance's face softened. “Aw,” he answered, coming out into the hallway and wrapping Keith up into a hug of his own, nearly picking him up but just sort of managing to lift his boyfriend onto his toes. “Are you joking? That's so fucking cute.”

Keith groaned. “Shut up. Whatever.” Despite his attitude of embarrassed indifference, he couldn’t help blushing just a little. “Don’t make a big deal out of it.”

“Too late, I already am,” Lance said, putting in the extra effort to actually lift Keith, though he could only hold him up long enough to get him back into the bedroom and put him right back down. Still, it was enough so that they weren't in the hallway anymore, the door sliding shut behind them as Lance leaned back and very carefully pecked Keith's cheek so he didn't get more moisturizer on his boyfriend's face. He also swiped off the bit of cream that had already rubbed off on Keith with his thumb.

Keith pointedly averted his gaze and huffed like a grumpy toddler. “Okay, okay, okay. Go finish putting on your girl face. I won’t go anywhere.”

Lance kept grinning, kissing Keith's blushing face again before heading back into the bathroom. “Make fun of me all you want, I'm sure you appreciate it when my skin is soft.”

“I would have to actually pay attention to the texture of your skin to care,” Keith quipped. “You want me to get Allura in here so she can do your makeup for you too?”

“Allura and I already have a spa day planned, _thanks_,” Lance called back, now leaned over the sink as he finally finished up the mask. Now he had a big patch that was going to be wet while the rest was dry, but whatever. Then he came back out, smirking with a dollop of moisturizer sitting on the ends of his fingers. “C'mere,” he snickered, reaching his hand out and then rushing at Keith.

“Lance… Lance, no!” Keith’s eyes bugged out of his head. His first instinct was to dodge out of the way, but then his mind immediately went to his pregnancy and how he couldn’t just throw himself around willy-nilly anymore. One hand protectively cupped his belly as he tried side stepping out of the line of fire, but it just wasn’t enough. Keith scowled when he wound up with moisturizer smeared across his face from chin to cheek. “You. Suck.”

Lance's tongue partially stuck out between his teeth as he tried and failed to hold back his shit-eating grin. “You'll live,” he said, reaching both of his hands up to Keith's face and rubbing in the moisturizer more evenly across his face. “It's nice; it's good for your skin!”

“My skin is fine,” Keith groaned, again sounding like a grumpy, nearly-whining child. He didn’t want to think about what a hybrid-Galra pregnancy might do to his skin; if he’d get dry and peeling, or extra oily with zits galore. “I could be allergic to something in this, you dummy. What if I broke out into hives in the next few minutes?”

Lance squinted his eyes, concerned. “Are... you?”

“Not yet.” Keith made a face like he was just _waiting_ for the chance to accuse Lance of some sort of brash foolishness. “But time will tell, won’t it?”

“You'll be okay. It's all-natural,” Lance said, finally closing his eyes all the way and nodding his head like a wise guru. He fished into his pocket, pulling out a tube of expensive chapstick and rolling it over his lips, and then leaning in and kissing Keith. “And now your lips will be nice and soft, too,” he said, beaming.

On reflex, Keith licked his own lips to dispel the texture of the chapstick. “What is your obsession with things being soft?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. “Do you have a smoothness fetish or something?”

“Yep,” Lance proclaimed, rubbing his hands obnoxiously all over Keith's face. “Ooh baby, you're so freakin' _smooth_.”

“That’s it.” Keith pushed away Lance’s hands and went for the door again. “I’m really leaving this time. I came here to be a good boyfriend, but you went and made it all weird. I’m gonna go polish Red.”

“I can’t ever flirt with you if you call it weird and leave!” Lance insisted, grabbing Keith around the waist this time so he couldn’t go. “I think my theory about you hating the cheesy lines was just proven.”

Keith grumbled and went surrender-limp in Lance’s arms, almost like a toddler slumping to the floor in the heat of a tantrum. “You flirting and being obnoxious are indiscernible.”

Lance just chuckled, putting his chin on Keith’s shoulder and wrapping his arms tighter around his waist, just above the swell of his stomach. “Yeah, you’re gonna have to get used to that.”

“Shiro says that when you all form Voltron, you easily overwhelm the rest of the team with your excitement and enthusiasm. I think he meant it in a good way, though. Seems like you went from panicking to celebrating really quickly.”

Lance flushed red. “He _told_ you?” he gawked, before groaning and burying his face into Keith’s shoulder. “Shiro, you traitor…”

Keith shrugged gently since Lance’s face was pressed into his shoulder. “He said it in the same breath of congratulating us on being boyfriends now. He said whatever I was doing makes you beyond happy. Then again, I also told him that I haven’t actually been doing much of anything other than letting you express yourself. Except when you’re being weird and dumb about smoothness.”

“That’s nice and all, but it’s a little embarrassing that he just told you. The rest of the team’s been making fun of me for being so transparent already. Maybe I wanted to tell you about my excitement on my own time!” Lance answered, sounding exasperated with Shiro.

Both Keith’s eyebrows rose up on his forehead. “Was your excitement not supposed to be obvious already? If you were trying to keep it a secret, you failed. Hardcore.”

“Gee, thanks,” Lance said, finally lifting his head back up so his face was visible, leaning his cheek on Keith’s shoulder this time. “Am I really so easy to read?”

“Lance, ever since finding out we’re having quints, you _at least_ once a day lie down in my lap and snuggle with my stomach with a grin on your face like you inhaled too much laughing gas. Transparency, thy name is Lance McClain. I think the only way you could get more excited is if you could either hear their heartbeats or feel them moving.”

Well, no sense trying to be coy about it now. Lance’s hand brushed against the top curve of Keith’s belly. “Do you have a guess at how far along you are? Then we’ll know when we_ can _hear their heartbeats and feel them moving.”

“The last time I was in heat was twelve weeks ago. We only have sex when I’m in heat. If I wasn’t pregnant after that, I would have gone into heat again. All of that equals me being roughly twelve weeks pregnant.” Keith looked down at his belly. “I don’t exactly know what that means, though.”

“If we could go to the hospital and use normal equipment, we could hear their heartbeats right now, then,” Lance groaned, pouting. “If we’re just going to wait until we can hear and feel them from the outside… We might be waiting until twenty or twenty-five weeks in.” When Keith gave him a look, Lance shrugged. “I have a lot of cousins and siblings.”

“Oh.” _And they’re all busy breeding, apparently._ Keith simply continued looking down at his belly and Lance’s hand there, not missing when his boyfriend gave him little squeezes. Dark eyes then glanced over and he murmured, “Your face gunk is cracking.”

“It’s time to peel it off,” Lance hummed, finally relinquishing his hold on Keith’s waist, but grabbing his hand and pulling him into the bathroom to ensure he didn’t run again.

Keith rolled his eyes, but he went along willingly. He leaned against the doorframe while watching Lance slowly peel off the mask, rotating around the four corners of his face. “So when is Voltron due for another appearance somewhere?”

“Couple days from now. Got another parade thing that’s supposed to be followed up by a diplomatic meeting.” Once the mask was off, Lance turned his face, trying to gauge the results. He was so diligent with his skincare routine that it wasn’t like his skin ever had a chance to get red or bumpy, so it looked the same as it ever was. Still, no news was good news. He ran the water from the tap, splashing it up onto his face to clean off any wayward residue. “I’m practically already bored. I hate the meetings.”

“Meetings are not your strong suit,” Keith agreed with a smirk. He was going to make a snarky remark about Lance’s face being _exactly the same_ after removing the facial mask, but a gurgle from deep in his gut effectively silenced him. Keith’s smirk devolved into a frown just as he let out a wet burp into his palm. “Ugh, jeez…”

Lance froze, hands poised to grab his trash can. “Are you gonna vomit?”

Keith pressed his fist against his mouth, trying to figure out the answer to that question. “I’m not sure,” he replied and gasped just before another burp. Oh man. It didn’t feel like lunch was sitting well. His stomach churned. More gurgling sounds, much more audible, and the inside of his mouth was suddenly coated in saliva. “Move!” Keith croaked. He pushed Lance aside so he could drop down onto his knees and unload into the toilet with a combination gagging and splashing sound.

Lance landed against the sink, flinching when Keith started to vomit. He opened a drawer and fished around until he found a cloth headband he used to keep his hair off his face when he was applying product, and carefully brushed back Keith’s hair and put it on him so it didn’t get into the puke. Then he crouched next to his boyfriend, and started rubbing his back as he always did. He kept making faces every time Keith hurled, and frowned whenever he paused, breathing wet and hard and making little choking sounds like he was trying to force the last of it up. “Want me to go get you one of your patches?” Lance offered when it seemed like things died down, at least for a little while.

The jiggly chunks of bright orange gelatin floating in the bowl mocked Keith and his inability to keep any food down for more than a few hours at a time. Fuck them. The overly sweet acrid odor was too much, so Keith wasted no time flushing everything down the pipes. He knelt there trying to catch his breath, spitting into the toilet every now and then, and then laid his cheek on the cool porcelain of the seat ring. “And my toothbrush. …Please.”

“Sure,” Lance said, depositing a kiss on Keith’s clammy forehead before rushing out of the bathroom, no heed given to the fact that he was still only wearing a robe as he rushed down the hall to Keith’s room.

A very deliberate “a_hem_” resounded from an intersecting hallway Lance just passed. Pidge and Matt stood there, each of them holding a box of tech equipment and spare parts. “We don’t take kindly to flashers on this ship,” she said, all sass and a grin brimming with vim and vigor.

“Very funny,” Lance said, leaning backwards so he could see down the hallway. “I’m wearing boxers underneath this, thanks.”

“We should be thanking you,” Matt said, making a face and elbowing his sister.

Pidge snickered and elbowed back at her brother. “What are you doing anyway? Is this some kind of sexy game of strip hide n’ seek you’re playing with Keith? You must be losing. Or else he’s naked in the castle somewhere.”

“I am getting him his anti-vomit patches,” Lance proclaimed, closing his eyes and rolling his shoulders back without shame.

“And the robe is for?” Matt prompted.

“Comfort!” Lance cried, throwing his arms up in the air and waving the two of them off, before continuing down the hallway. Only to pause, reverse, and go in the actual direction that would bring him to Keith's room.

There were two very different vibes happening in Keith’s room. On one side, he had everything he needed thus far set out very neatly on a table. There was the waste bin and some clean rags for when he threw up unexpectedly, the anti-emetic patches laid out in a couple rows, a bottle of sleep aid pills, a heating pad with its cord coiled neatly on top, and a few bottles of a drink Coran swore up and down had the same electrolyte-restoring properties as Gatorade or Powerade.

On the other side was his bed, which looked like a giant, tangled mess of sheets, blankets, pillows and clothing. Normally, Keith made his bed with military corners and tucked tightly enough to bounce a quarter. This was a _far_ cry from that. In fact, it almost resembled a nest with a hollow spot in the middle and everything else sort of wrapping around it.

Lance stumbled through the door in his haste, but paused when he noticed the messy bed. That was… odd, to say the least. He’d never seen Keith’s bed that messed up, and he’d seen Keith’s bed in _various _states of disarray before. Shrugging it off, he made his way over to the table, collecting up the patches and taking the heating pad and a bottle of the drink for good measure. He gave the bed another cursory glance, humming under his breath as he considered a theory, before realizing how much time he was wasting and high-tailing it out of the bedroom and back down the hall to his room.

Back in Lance’s room, there came the sound of the toilet flushing again and then water running in the sink as Keith washed his face of sweat, spit, and bile. He looked at the collection of items in the other boy’s arms, but frowned. “Did you forget my toothbrush?”

Lance paused. “Yes,” he admitted, putting the items down on his desk and then putting up a finger to indicate to Keith to wait. “I'll be right back,” he promised, before sprinting back out of the room, back in the other direction. Lance decided to overcompensate by bringing Keith's toothbrush and toothpaste tube too, so he didn't have to use Lance's cinnamon-flavored one. He came back into the bedroom for the second time completely out of breath, but still holding the two items triumphantly over his head.

“Second time’s the charm, I guess.” _Shit._ _No, wait._ That was an asshole thing to say. He shouldn’t be an asshole to his boyfriend. “I mean, thanks.” Keith took the toothbrush and paste, making quick work of them. Next, he put one of the patches on his upper arm. Finally, he got into Lance’s bed, plugged the heating pad into one of the nearby outlets, and positioned it under his shirt. “So much for attempting to eat lunch earlier.”

“Well, you tried,” Lance said sympathetically, immediately climbing into the bed after Keith. He could never help himself. “You need real food, though. I'll start bringing you stuff back from the planets we visit. Only problem is that none of it keeps very long since we don't really have the right appliances for that...”

“Just bring enough back for one or two meals same day,” Keith suggested. “Unless you can convince Allura and Coran to spring for a fridge… or whatever it is modern aliens use to keep their food cold. Coran makes those weird dishes for us sometimes. That means there must be a legit kitchen in the castle somewhere. It could have something as primitive and simple as an ice chest.”

“I guess I'll have to ask him about that,” Lance murmured, tilting his head back and forth as he decided on his plan of attack. The heating pad got really warm at its best, so he couldn't lean his head there like he normally liked to. So, he laid down across Keith's lap as he often did, but just rested his cheek on his boyfriend's thigh for now.

Keith was quiet for a little while. He waited for the patch to start working, enjoyed the silence, and contemplated how snuggly Lance insisted on being. Keith decided he still didn’t mind it… liked it, even. “Do you ever get the impression that Red misses me at all?”

Lance nodded his head slightly. “Yeah, she... well, you know they don't talk, not really, but when I think about you or someone mentions you, she... perks up, I guess. Becomes more present. I don't think Red dislikes me or anything, I think we get along pretty great. But she definitely misses you.” He chuckled a little, wistful. “Allura tells me something similar about Blue.”

“That feels nice, though. Knowing they miss us and think about us. We awakened them after ten-thousand years of solitude. I’d like to think a bond like that is nearly impossible to break. I wouldn’t want Red to dislike you, and she wouldn’t have chosen you if she did, but I’m glad she hasn’t given up on me.”

“The day we found out you were pregnant, I only knew you had come into the hangar because Red got so excited while I was talking with her,” Lance added with another little laugh.

Keith laughed by way of an amused exhale through his nose. “I wonder how she’d take the news that I’m having kits.”

“I think she already knows,” Lance said with a guilty smile, bringing his hand to his face to scratch at his jaw with one finger. “You know me. I'm so bad at keeping my thoughts in one place. Whoever's tuned in to me when we form Voltron always gets an earful of whatever's going on with me. So, Red's kind of a given. I'm surprised you haven't gone to tell her yourself yet, though.”

Keith sighed this time. “I’m just as embarrassed letting her see me like this as I am letting anyone else on the team see me getting so fat so soon. I keep telling myself it’s because she must be tired after all the appearances you guys have to make, so she deserves some peace and quiet, but that has nothing to do with it. Not really. There’s no reason I can’t go down to hangar and talk to her.”

“Well... I guess I can't blame you,” Lance murmured, shrugging his shoulders as best as he could from his position cuddled up on Keith's lap. He understood. If he was in Keith's position, he'd probably also be freaking out about his appearance and letting other people see him. Though, he privately thought that he might have it worse in his hypothetical reality where this was happening to him, since the other members of the team were _way_ more likely to tease him than to tease Keith. Specifically Pidge. Pidge would be teasing him a lot. “I'm sure Red would be happy to talk to you about it, though.”

“I’ll make it a point to visit her soon.” There came a few audible gurgles from down in his gut again and Keith swallowed thickly. He knew he wasn’t going to puke, but the nausea was still there. “One of my foster moms… If any of the kids had nightmares, she’d come in and rub our backs until we fell back asleep. If one of us had a bellyache, she gave us soda crackers and rubbed our stomachs.”

Lance blinked, unsure of where that story came from until Keith got to the end. “Do you want me to rub your stomach?” he guessed.

An obvious blush spread across Keith’s face as he averted his eyes. “It’s fine if you don’t feel like it.” This was the complete opposite of Shiro’s advice about not being afraid to ask Lance for physical favors. Small intimacies like this _were not_ in Keith’s wheelhouse. Neither were big intimacies, or any intimacies. What the heck even was a big intimacy? He was making up garbage in his head again. “I’ll be fine. The heating pad is enough.”

“I can do it,” Lance insisted. He wasn't about to let his chance slip away. He reached over and carefully adjusted the heating pad so it was higher up on Keith's stomach, still working its magic but allowing Lance's hands to rub across the bottom curve of his boyfriend's belly. He occasionally glanced up at Keith's face, trying to judge if he was doing this correctly, turning a little pink around the ears as the room became silent except for the constant quiet hum of the castle-ship. So, Lance decided to start talking, though it was just a whisper, to Keith's stomach as he rubbed it. Too embarrassed to say what he was saying in English, though, he spoke in Spanish to the little lives growing inside his boyfriend, closing his eyes as he did.


	6. On Loving and Leaving

“Have you given any special consideration to his specific dietary needs?” Pidge asked, adjusting her glasses and peering into the display case of fresh fish laid out on a bed of ice. Well, they assumed it was all fish. Some of the critters were things the Earthlings never saw before. Sticking to gills, fins and scales seemed like a safe bet. “It can’t just be all about increased caloric intake. Given the similarities between Galra and Earth predators, such as their sharp teeth and claws, I’m guessing they’re a carnivorous race. Keith might need more protein now than ever before.”

“Sure, but you can’t discount a healthy serving of fruits and vegetables,” Hunk added while eyeing some produce stands at the other end of the market. “Galra might be carnivores, but Keith is still part human, and humans are omnivores. He shouldn’t ignore that either. Without enough citrus in his diet, he could get scurvy!”

“Considering he’s been subsisting on a diet of only food goo for the whole time we’ve been in space, I think anything is welcome at this point,” Lance said, practically tearing his hair out. He had no idea what he was doing. If they were back on Earth, he’d be fine. He helped his family shop for food all the time, and when someone in the family was pregnant, there were a few mainstays that they always fell back on, with cravings dictating the rest. But Keith didn’t mention any cravings, and even if he did, what would that matter? Everything they were looking at on any given planet was so removed from Earth food that anything Keith might tell him to get would be impossible to find. “I’ll just get some of everything. That makes a square meal, right? Besides, he probably won’t even like the smell or taste or texture of all of it. If we bring back a variety, there’s less chance of him hating everything and going hungry. Right? That’s good logic. Right? We can eat whatever he doesn’t like.”

Pidge shook her head. “It’s flawed to think anything other than food goo will make a more appropriate option. This isn’t just about Keith having a taste for something. His diet has to sustain not only himself, but also contribute to the growth and development of five fetal alien hybrids. A ‘square meal,’” she explained, even going as far as using air quotes, “is no longer dictated by portion size or the food pyramid. I’m sure his Galra biology demands protein. Protein also prevents anemia. He needs enough fats to put on the weight that will help cushion his bones and also contribute to the kits getting fat enough in the later months. Carbs and other sugars should be carefully considered so as not to put his pre-natal glucose levels at risk. Not to mention essential vitamins like C and D for healthy brain functions.”

“Okay, fine, so we’ll get these… fish...” Lance said, making a face at some of the weirder creatures on display, “And we’ll get fruits and vegetables,” he said, before Hunk could open his mouth. “And we’ll get a decent amount of both. We just can’t go overboard.” Coran finally showed him the place for storing food on the castle-ship, and it was pretty decently sized. But things could still get gross while stored in there if left inside for too long, so smaller, frequent hauls of food were advised. “Okay?”

Pidge nodded. “Fish is an excellent choice for boosting omegas. You might want to consider getting a red meat protein as well, though.”

“Y’know, protein shakes are probably a good option too,” Hunk suggested. “If he’s still having a hard time keeping his food down, a shake is just a soft liquid that shouldn’t upset his stomach too badly. Storing is also easy. It’s only containers of powder and then you add water.”

“Milk is a better option for the duration of the pregnancy.”

“Milk definitely spoils if you don’t keep it cold enough, Pidge.”

“Except calcium is a nutrient that Keith definitely shouldn’t skimp on, and milk is the best source for that, unless you know of some alien substitute.”

“This is all fascinating, but irrelevant if we can’t find any of this stuff here,” Lance said, gesturing at the market around them. “Until we’ve checked out this whole place, who knows what’s even available? I’m just gonna get some bags, fill them up like how we did back at home when my cousins and aunts were pregnant, and you guys are gonna help me find decent substitutes for things in all this weird alien mess. Sound good?”

Pidge looked around at the trio of 'best guess' shoppers. She was unimpressed. “This would go a lot better if Coran was here to tell us what all these foods were. It’s too bad he had to stay behind with Allura for that delegation meeting.”

“You know, I have some experience with cooking,” Hunk informed them proudly. “I took some summer jobs in beach-side restaurants during the tourist seasons before I applied to join the Garrison. I like to think I have a knack for picking out good foods. We should be fine if we put our heads together. Also, we should ask the grocers for advice.”

“Hopefully they understand what we’re looking for,” Lance said, shrugging his shoulders dramatically. “Let’s get the lead out guys, we only have a few hours before that meeting’s over.”

Hunk proved himself invaluable during their shopping excursion. He also boasted about the kindness of strangers when the grocery staff happily helped them navigate the market and find what they needed. They grocer even introduced the trio to a nutritionist who worked at the market when Hunk mentioned their need to feed a pregnant male carnivore-omnivore hybrid with lingering food sensitivities.

They all returned to the cruiser with at least one bag on each arm. “By golly, is Keith really craving that much food?” Coran asked, shocked at the sheer amount of groceries.

“Nah, but I figured I bring back enough to cook a few meals for everyone,” Hunk answered. “Nothing tastes better than a home-cooked meal.”

“This is gonna be awesome,” Lance agreed, holding up his bag of food like it was gold. “I haven't eaten something that _isn't_ goo in what feels like forever.”

“Maybe we can actually get Keith to eat with us for once,” Pidge added hopefully. “He hasn’t sat down for a family meal since announcing the pregnancy.”

“I'll ask him what he wants to do,” Lance offered. “Tell me what you're gonna be makin', Hunk; maybe I can convince him.”

Hunk grinned. “Obviously they’ll all be alien cuisine versions, but I’m making grilled bass with spiced tomato salad, spiced short ribs, ginger lime baby carrots, and yogurt panna cottas with honey.”

“You’re making me drool,” Pidge sighed, looking starry-eyed at the thought of such well-prepared dishes. Hunk was amazing in the kitchen. She wished he cooked more often.

“Sounds great,” Lance agreed, clapping his hands together. “Okay, wish me luck.” With everyone's fingers crossed, Lance left his bag of food with the others to be put away and set off into the castle to locate Keith. Chances were usually pretty good that he was in his room, so Lance checked there first. Pregnancy seemed to be affecting Keith's memory, so nowadays, he often forgot to lock his door. So, Lance approached it to knock, but would now call for his boyfriend before even getting in range of the door's motion sensor to let him know he was coming. “Keith?”

“Yeah,” Keith called in return. He sat in his nest bed—something he still hadn’t verbally acknowledged with anyone, and perhaps actually oblivious to himself—sharpening his Galra blade on a special whet stone Kolivan gave to him. “You’re back from the parade a lot sooner than I expected.”

“The parade was super early this morning. We just got back from the meeting,” Lance corrected gently, finding the door to once again be unlocked as he strolled right in. He considered Keith lying in the bed for a moment. He sort of thought that maybe there was a chance that Keith just hadn't been able to make his bed or put away his laundry last time he saw it, but now it seemed deliberate, since Keith definitely would _never _lounge around on an unmade bed unless he meant for it to be that way. Lance decided not to touch that topic just yet. “Thankfully, I didn't have to stay in the meeting hall. Allura and Shiro gave me, Hunk, and Pidge permission to go food shopping instead.”

“Hunk, Pidge, and me,” Keith corrected dryly. “No wonder Allura let you off the hook. You’d suck at being a diplomat since you can’t even speak properly.” He then perked up at the mention of food. “Did you bring back anything good? If I have to eat and/or puke up food goo one more time, I’m gonna pull out my hair.”

Lance just rolled his eyes with a goodnatured smile at having his grammar corrected. “Sure, make fun of the bilingual guy for not being able to speak properly,” he said, coming over to the bed and sitting on the side, careful not to disrupt the carefully built wall of blankets and clothing. “Hunk's making grilled space bass. Everyone was hoping you'd come eat with us in the dining room?”

The sound of the whet stone gliding against the dagger came to a stop at the mention of eating with the rest of the crew. Shiro was the only person Keith ate with outside his room. He didn’t burst into flames and the universe didn’t implode, so that was good. Shiro didn’t say anything about Keith’s size either, which was even better. Shiro was older, though, and had more tact than the others, except maybe Allura. He couldn’t count on Hunk, Pidge, or even Coran to not potentially make some sort of remark. “I dunno…”

“It's okay if you don't want to,” Lance said, waving his hands. “But... well, they miss seeing you out of your room and talking to you, and I don't know about you, but I think I'd be going a little stir crazy if I was in your situation right now. You kind've only spend time in here, my room, or the med bay. You said you wanted to make it a point to visit Red again soon, so if you also want to talk to anyone else, having a meal with everyone else every once in a while, could be nice?”

Keith touched his swollen belly, taking it into consideration, but also knew Lance had a point. It wasn’t fun staying mostly cooped up in his room all the time. Even when he lived alone in his desert shack, he at least got out every day exploring. He glanced his surroundings. “No one will come into my room when I’m not here, right?” he asked, which had never been a concern of his before.

“Uh... I don't think so?” Lance said, looking confused by the question. “Why do you ask?”

“I don’t want anyone disturbing my stuff,” Keith answered, very direct and honest. “My stuff is exactly how I like it, how I need it. I don’t want someone coming in here without me and touching my things.”

“We can lock your door while you're out,” Lance suggested. “Is this about the nest?” he asked, deciding to be just as direct, motioning at the wall of blankets he'd still not touched.

Keith frowned. “What nest?” And he sounded genuinely lost as to what Lance was referring.

Lance paused. “This nest,” he said, now using both hands to motion at the entire tangle of fabric on the bed.

“What are you talking about?” Keith looked down at the collection of sheets, pillows and clothing surrounding him, and it still didn’t even seem to register with him. “This… This is my bed. Why are you calling it a nest?”

“Because you always make your bed super neat. This,” Lance said, waving at the circular shape of the mess that now sat on top of Keith's bed, “Looks like a nest. Like how birds go and get string and twigs to make a nest? You have your clothes and shit all up on here with you.”

“That’s because… because…” Keith took another look at the bedding and clothes gathered around him. He _was_ dead center in a little pocket while everything else piled up around him. Shirts that didn’t fit him anymore and even articles of clothing he managed to steal from Lance’s room were here. “I just feel… safer when I sleep like this? I like having protection on all sides. Nothing… Nothing can get me.”

“I mean, fair I guess, but... Is that mine?” Lance asked, just now noticing a jacket that belonged to him, the arms stretched wide, looped in with a blanket to help one side of the nest keep its shape. The torso part of it trailed into the middle of the nest, next to the pillow Lance assumed Keith slept on. But it was anyone's guess with how many pillows were strewn about.

Keith’s eyes followed Lance’s gaze to the jacket. Huh. “…Maybe.”

Lance laughed, resting his elbow on his knee and his head on his hand. “Instead of stealing my jackets to sleep with, you could always just sleep with me.”

“I don’t remember taking this,” Keith hummed, still hung up on the presence of the jacket as he untangled it from the rest of the nest. He rubbed the fabric between his fingers. It was well-worn. On pure reflex, he brought the jacket up to his nose and breathed deeply on the collar. “It smells exactly like you.”

Lance's shoulders sagged when Keith totally ignored his come on. Flirting with Keith was _hard._ Not for anyone but the most persistent. “I kind of assumed that's _why_ you took it,” Lance said, raising his eyebrows, bemused. “How do you take something from my room, sleep with it every night, and then not remember doing it?”

“Apparently I’ve been doing a lot of things without knowing I’m doing it,” Keith said in reference to the clothes stealing, nest making, and anything else they’d yet to discover. He kept smelling the jacket. The scent on it made him feel warm all the way down into his bones and his chest feel full. He slipped into a content daze, eyes half-lidded and humming to himself.

Lance watched this, still with a confused look on his face, eyebrows drawn together. Finally, he cleared his throat. “Y'know, _I_ smell exactly like me, too.”

“Mmmn.” Keith set the jacket aside and crawled right up alongside Lance without any hesitation. Subliminal instincts encouraged him to find Lance’s scent glands, and the only ones not covered by clothing were behind his ears, so Keith leaned in even closer so he could breathe deeply on his boyfriend’s natural scent. He got that half-lidded gaze again, looking dazed and high and beyond content, even with a faint smile on his lips. Keith then proceeded with wrapping his arms around his boyfriend and kneading his fingers into Lance’s back. He was humming contentedly again too. Up this close, Lance could see the pigment of Keith’s hair turning violet down at the roots.

Lance looked surprised when his whining actually worked, and even more shocked when Keith practically crawled into his lap. The little bit of violet streaking into his hair was also not missed. “Uh... Keith?” Lance started, cautiously. “You feeling okay?”

Keith nuzzled right where Lance’s jaw and ear came together. “I feel great,” he replied. “I recognize your scent. When I was in heat, I could smell it in the air. I knew whoever made this scent was the person I needed to be with. I remember now. I caught your scent and my body felt like it was suddenly impaled on spikes. You. It was you. I followed your scent to your room. My bones were on fire and you were the only one who could put out the flame.”

Nothing was quite as romantic as your boyfriend describing the feeling he had while around you as '_impaled on spikes_'. But the _way_ Keith was speaking was enough to make Lance's face heat up cherry red. “Is that...” he started, before swallowing dryly and needing to restart his question. “Do you ever feel like that when you're not in heat?”

Keith shook his head. “I’m never in as much pain or feel like sex is the only thing that will keep me from dying when I’m not in heat. I _don’t want_ to feel that way. I don’t like it. Nothing about it feels good, nor is it romantic. Don’t get me wrong, being with you is amazing, but I think there’s a big difference between my heat cycle and… whatever I feel right now. This is a first for me.”

“Then... what are you feeling right now?” Lance asked. He almost felt as entranced as Keith was acting, unable to take his eyes off his boyfriend as he kept snuggling his face against Lance's.

“Hmmm…” Keith’s fingers continued kneading the small of Lance’s back and the base of his skull. It was very reminiscent of a cat kneading something soft while purring. “I feel like I’m wrapped in a warm, heavy blanket. And sort of like I’m in a warm bath and the water smells like you. Like I’m completely submerged in you. I want to be in constant physical contact with you, but not desperately like when I’m in heat. You just feel comfortable and nice and happy and good. I want to be a part of it.”

“That sounds nice,” Lance responded, now biting on his bottom lip. He was a hopeless romantic, he knew he was. Hearing Keith say stuff like this felt like someone plunged their hand into his chest and squeezed his heart until it was fit to burst. But he was also aware of Keith's weird behavior, and it gave him a wary feeling in the back of his brain, almost like he was talking to a weird dream version of Keith that didn't mean any of it. Still, he collected Keith even further onto his lap, and, unsure of what to say, wordlessly tucked some of his boyfriend's long hair behind his ears, watching Keith lean into the contact on each side.

Very vaguely, it appeared Keith’s ears might be changing shape, but it was still hard to tell. Regardless, the boy hummed louder while tilting his head one way and then the other into Lance’s hands. Having his own scent glands rubbed by his boyfriend seemed to stimulate him in a new way. Keith just looked so dang content that it was unreal. Some sort of foreign second nature took over him. “What about you?” he finally asked. “How do you usually feel when you’re around me?”

“How do I feel?” Lance echoed, now dealing with the vague feeling of his heart being shoved up into his throat. Keith’s face right now was so unfair. “I don’t know,” he continued, his brain and his mouth not really communicating. “I think I’m just in love with you.”

And that’s when Keith came back to his senses. His arms completely withdrew, the humming stopped instantly, and his expression morphed into something that nearly resembled terror. “What did you just say?” he asked, voice low and quivering.

That wasn’t a good response. Lance covered his mouth with both of his hands. When Keith spoke, Lance swallowed hard again, and cautiously moved his fingers so he could answer. “Um… nothing, if it’ll make you stop looking at me like that.”

“_Mommy, where are you going?”_

“_Don’t follow me, Keith.”_

“_But Daddy isn’t home yet. I don’t wanna be by myself.”_

“_Be a big boy, Keith. I love you.”_

Keith stumbled out of Lance’s lap and onto his own two feet. He fought against the panic rising in his chest, but it was a losing battle. His wide eyes fixed themselves right at Lance.

“_Dad! Dad, don’t!”_

“_You’ll be okay, Keith.”_

“_Daddy!”_

“_I love you, son.”_

“Why would you say that?!” Keith blurted. “Why are you leaving? You gave me such a hard time when I said I didn’t think I should live in the castle anymore, but now you’re going to leave? Why are you doing this? You can’t just go away, Lance!”

Lance looked like a deer in headlights, eyes wide and confused. “Leaving?! Who’s leaving?” he parroted back, mouth hanging open, halfway to forming more words but not quite finding the right train of thought to match up with whatever wavelength Keith was on. “I didn’t… I didn’t say anything about leaving?”

Keith’s expression shifted again as he started masking his trauma and fear with anger. “You said you love me. That’s what people say when they’re about to leave you forever! It’s the shittiest goodbye anyone can give! So why… are you… leaving me?”

Lance’s mouth went dry. Out of all of the possible situations he envisioned for this moment, this was not one of them. Sensing that he had to do _something_, he got to his feet, his hands extended to come and rest on Keith’s shoulders. “Whoa, hey, hold on. Maybe something’s getting lost in translation here. When I said… that… I mean… the opposite of what you’re saying. I mean I want to be with you forever.”

Keith’s entire body was tense from head to toe. His hands balled up into fists down at his sides. He didn’t pull away from Lance, but there was obviously conflict happening beneath his surface. “People only tell me they love me when they’re about to leave. Mom said it before she disappeared. Dad said it before he died. That’s what happens, Lance. That’s what happens. People say they love me and then they leave me behind. They go away forever. And then nobody ever says it to me again. Just when I start to think I love my foster parents or my foster siblings, it’s time to switch homes. Either people go away or they send me away. It’s not fair! And now you’re doing it!”

“But I’m not,” Lance insisted, tightening his grip on Keith’s shoulders. “I’m not doing that, Keith. I swear I’m not. Why would I leave? You said yourself that I’m embarrassingly transparent about how excited I am. Why would I go anywhere?”

“That’s what happens,” Keith murmured. Clearly, he was unable to escape the flawed association he made with expressions of affection. It was an imprint that could gradually be erased with time, but for now, it struck fear and the anticipation of abandonment. “People say they love me and then they leave. That’s what happens. You’re going away. You’re going to leave. You love me, so you’re going away. That’s what happens.”

Lance looked distressed now, searching Keith’s face like it would give him some hint for how to convince Keith that he wasn’t going to randomly leave. “How can I prove to you that I’m not?”

Keith sighed, sounding very tired and defeated. “I don’t know. Just… don’t, I guess.”

Lance frowned. That didn’t really provide any immediate solutions, but he supposed there was nothing to be done about that. “Sorry I… ruined your blissed-out snuggle session,” he murmured, trying to maybe recapture a little bit of Keith’s good mood by again tucking a lock of hair behind his ear.

Keith shook his head. “Just… come here.” He gently tugged Lance back over to the bed where they sat down and he let Lance keep rubbing behind his ear. It wasn’t earning the drunken pheromone reaction like it did before, but Keith still submitted to the comforting gesture. It still felt good. He wouldn’t mind feeling good right now.


	7. Don't Give Up Hope

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter has a couple headcanon things that got debunked by later seasons of voltron, but were still a mystery when this fic was originally written

Getting Keith to come to dinner and eat in front of everybody seemed easy compared to trying to convince him that Lance wasn't planning on vanishing in the middle of the night one day. Lance already tried just talking him out of it, but clearly that wasn't enough. Whatever magic ingredient Keith needed to convince him, it also needed to come alongside a healthy dose of time. Time to let the idea sink in, to let the wounds of all the people who left him before heal over. Lance hoped that if he just did his best, eventually, Keith would understand.

Today in particular, Lance was approaching Keith's room with another few bags of shopping. New clothes, which it seemed like Keith needed constantly, were a given. But the bag from an alien baby store on the other arm was a new addition. Keith practically yelled at him not to get ahead of himself and buy baby stuff too early... but... Lance was bad at following directions. “Keith?” he called, announcing his presence before he got to the door. He didn't bother raising his fist to knock anymore as the door, predictably, slid open as soon as he got close.

“In here,” Keith called back from his bathroom. At sixteen weeks pregnant, he was still throwing up—which he’d have to talk to Kolivan about—but thankfully this time he was just in there looking at himself in the mirror. Keith used a combination of a comb and his fingers to inspect his roots. The purple creeping into his hair was saturated enough now that it was visible in his bangs and around his ears. While not a huge expert on pregnancies, he was almost positive changes in hair color were not a natural part of the process.

Lance deposited his shopping on Keith's desk, careful not to disturb any of the organized chaos. Then he slid into the bathroom behind his boyfriend, wrapping his arms around Keith's shoulders and leaning against his back, placing a kiss on the shell of his ear. “What're you up to?”

“Trying to figure out where this purple is coming from,” Keith hummed in reply. He reciprocated the hug in his own way by leaning back against Lance a bit. “Have you noticed it? It was dark like the rest of my hair at first, but I think it’s getting more… purple-y. And I think my eyes are different.” He lifted his eyelid to get a good look at the iris, which seemed to be turning from dark blue-grey to a sort of murky green. “You know more about being pregnant than me. Did your aunts or cousins change colors when they had kids?”

“Um... definitely not,” Lance said, raising his eyebrows as he looked. Yeah, that was certainly more purple-y than before. “Maybe it's a Galra thing? Have you asked Kolivan?”

“Not yet. I haven’t spoken to him since the first time. Even with Zarkon in the wind chasing down Lotor, it’s not exactly safe to communicate with the Blade on a whim. I have to arrange specific days, times, and secure frequencies before I can talk to him. I’ve been meaning to, though. I have a lot of questions.”

“Alright. I wouldn't stress about it until then. It could be normal!” Lance suggested, optimistically. Nothing about this was really _normal_, but as long as Keith wasn't dying, he counted it as a win. “I brought some more clothes.”

Keith looked down at his belly and suddenly blushed. Geez, he just kept getting bigger and bigger. He already looked just a few weeks away from popping. Only if it was, y’know, one baby. Like normal. He hastily tugged on the hem of the shirt and mumbled shyly, “Yeah? Um… thanks.”

“And...” Lance added, glancing to the side and smiling guiltily. “I know you told me not to buy any baby stuff yet, buuuut...”

Keith groaned and sagged in his boyfriend’s arms. “Lance, I _told_ you _not_ to do that. Seriously, do you just pick and choose what you want to hear from people? I haven’t asked Allura for permission to take a room in the castle for a nursery. What did you even buy?”

“Look, you'll agree with me that I _had_ to buy them when you see them,” Lance insisted. “They're just onesies. They won't take up a lot of space, I swear.”

“Little things start adding up, Lance,” warned Keith. He went back into the bedroom anyway, spotting the bags on his desk. “Help me sit down.” Other than the pleasure of being embarrassed and self-conscious with his appearance at all times, Keith’s large belly provided the benefit of having shitty balance. Any time he went between sitting and standing, he had to use people or nearby objects for support. It also meant his back, knees and ankles were pushed to their load-bearing limits in just a short period of time.

“Sure,” Lance said, offering his bent arm for Keith to grab onto as he maneuvered himself into the desk chair. Lance still couldn't believe just how big Keith was despite him not being very far along at all. It kept reinforcing the absolutely insane detail that there were five babies on the way. “Okay, look,” Lance said, sounding completely confident that Keith would understand once he showed him his purchases. He fished into the bag from the baby store and pulled out five little onesies, each in a different color. He laid them out across the desk, revealing that they were patterned to look exactly like the suits of each Voltron Paladin, just as the designer had seen them in parades and televised speeches.

Keith let out one of his breathy chuckles and the corners of his lips actually quirked up into a smile. “You’re kidding me.” Naturally, he reached for the Red Paladin onesie so he could inspect it more closely and rub the soft fabric between his fingers. “Okay, so I get it.”

Lance grinned back as soon as he saw Keith's little smile. “You get it,” he said, nodding sagely. “I would have regretted it forever if I didn't pick these up when I saw them.”

“So does this mean the nursery should be Voltron and space-themed?” Keith asked and then picked up the Blue Paladin onesie. Maybe they could be on the lookout for lion plushies in the same colors.

“I mean, it's gotta be space themed,” Lance said, shrugging his shoulders and leaning on the back of Keith's chair. “Even before getting launched up into space in a castle-ship, I think either of us would have been all up on the space theme. Being pilots and all that. Stars, planets, rockets, that kind of thing... y'know?”

Keith hummed thoughtfully and then glanced up at the other teen. “You wouldn’t jump for a beach theme?”

“Well...” Lance actually thought about that for a moment. “I guess... I always assumed that when I actually built a nursery one day, the beach would be right outside the window. So a beach theme would have seemed a little redundant. Now, though...” He went quiet, picking at a rogue thread on the sleeve of his jacket. His expression turned pensive. “Dunno.”

Keith pursed his lips. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel homesick.” Now, though, it was the opposite of what Lance described. Space was right outside every window, so did it really make sense to fashion the nursery like a galaxy? If it’s what got Lance most excited, then Keith would absolutely still do it. “I know we stash Kaltenecker in there now, but have you ever thought of using the holodeck to create Varadero? Or something close to it?”

“Nah,” Lance said, shaking his head. “I could, but... Well, it's not about the location, really. It's about everyone living there, the shops, the daily life. You don't really get any of the most important things out of a hologram of the location itself.” He realized he was getting pretty sappy, so he waved his hand. “Besides, I don't want to disturb Kaltenecker. You can't get any of those milkshakes you've been craving if she's not a happy cow.”

Bright pink erupted all across Keith’s face. “I haven’t been _craving_ anything, you numskull. What are you even talking about? So I have a milkshake now and then. So does everyone else!”

“You have exponentially more milkshakes than anyone else,” Lance said with a small chuckle. “And I can say that confidently because I make all of 'em. And I check on them in the morning. And sometimes, some of the ones I made for the next day are gone,” he said, poking Keith's cheek in a playfully accusatory way.

Those cheeks puffed up as Keith scowled. “How do you know _Hunk_ isn’t drinking them?”

“Hunk knows how to make them for himself. Allura and Coran don't drink them anymore. Shiro's definitely not drinking them and sure, _maybe_ you could make a case for Pidge or Matt, but you are giving me an awfully suspicious look right now,” Lance said, now smirking widely.

Keith’s hands cupped over the front of his stomach. “Yeah, well…” His voice trailed off when he couldn’t come up with any more arguments. Hunk was his last-ditch effort, but not without good reason. If there was anyone in the castle on which to blame food shenanigans, it was Hunk. But Lance was seeing right through him. “So shut up. Whatever. Geez.”

“There's nothing wrong with it, babe,” Lance insisted, grinning and rubbing his face against Keith's. “But you can _ask_ me if you want something instead of stealing it in the middle of the night. I keep telling you to just come get me if you want something, don't I?”

“I’m pregnant, not handicapped,” Keith huffed. “I can get things on my own.” Which he demonstrated when a loud gurgle in his stomach turned into a sour belch and Keith had to grab the trash can from beside the desk. The gourmet breakfast Hunk made all came back up in a rainbow of green, white, and orange sludge. Keith hugged the trash can against his torso, gagging wetly. He looked over at the onesies with sight blurred by tears. This would all be worth it. He just had to stick it out and he’d get five kits as his reward.

Lance frowned, bringing his hands to Keith's shoulders and rubbing his thumbs into the stiff spots. “It seems like you've had morning sickness for a really long time,” he pointed out, sounding worried. “Is that one of the things you're planning to ask Kolivan about?”

Keith shivered as he nodded. “I don’t know if …_hnnn_… five kits means l-longer morning sickness or …_hrrp huuuhn_… if it has to do with m-my human and Galra biology t-trying to achieve balance.” He made another convulsive hiccuping motion that morphed into an actual retch in the middle. A fresh wave of vomit landed in the waste basket. “Shit…” Keith gasped. It burned coming up, making his tonsils raw. “Hurts…”

Lance flinched. The sounds and smells and sight of it all was almost enough to make him lose his own breakfast, but thankfully looking away seemed to keep him from getting too nauseous. He kept rubbing Keith's shoulders and back, waiting for him to stop retching before trying to take the trash can away to clean it. “I can only imagine...”

Keith was panting and shaking when he finally finished hurling. He looked more like he just survived the Blade ceremony than he did like he just finished throwing up. He discovered neither knowledge nor death, however. But avoiding death was just fine. “This must be what Hunk feels like whenever we launch…”

Lance pursed his lips, finally looking back once Keith was definitely done, and resting his chin on Keith’s head. “I worry about you, y’know. I get that it’s hard to call Kolivan, but talk to him soon, okay?”

Keith swallowed, but that just irritated the rawness in his throat. “Bring me my commlink? It’s in the third from the top,” he said, gesturing at the little pressurized cubbies in the wall that served as the head of his bed. “I need to send out a signal to request communication.”

Lance nodded, looking a little surprised. Keith immediately complying was so rare, but maybe that just spoke to the fact that he was concerned and wanted to talk to Kolivan, too. Lance obediently retrieved the commlink and placed it down in front of Keith. “How long until he gets back to you, do you think?”

“It can vary,” Keith answered. “It all depends on how soon he receives the signal and when he thinks it’s safe to talk.” He set the trash can down on the floor—doing his best to ignore how it sloshed—and picked up the commlink so he could press the little button on the side. It was similar to Morse code, but obviously using a system only the Blade could decipher. Keith sent out a signal requesting communication as soon as possible once a channel was deemed secure. He also made sure to clarify that the subject was kits.

Lance noticed the trash can and once again took it upon himself to go and get it washed out, even as he held it at arm’s length for the entire trip to the bathroom. Once he came back, Keith seemed to be done with the commlink, so he tried to decide what to do next. Kissing him would probably taste terrible. Trying to sit on his lap was impossible. Sex stuff was off the table unless Keith expressed any interest. So Lance decided to hug Keith from behind, putting his chin back on top of his boyfriend’s hair. “This is probably pre-mature, but what about names? We can’t just call them ‘the five babies’ forever.”

Keith hummed at the suggestion. “No… but we don’t even know their sexes yet. Why pick names now if we’re just going to have to change them later?”

“Are they gonna have sexes?” Lance asked, curious. “I mean, you said Galra were just… Galra. Who knows how human or how Galra they could be on the outside, let alone the inside. What if we just picked gender neutral names and called it a day?”

Keith frowned. “They’re going to be Galra hybrids like me. Just because I have Galra genitalia doesn’t mean I still don’t identify as a boy. We shouldn’t label the kits agender before they’re born just because they _might_ have penis-cloaca pairings. Some of them might not have penises at all and have actual vaginas. Besides, we’re raising them human. I don’t know how to raise them Galra. If we raise them human, they’ll probably wind up with notions of gender binary and feel like girls and boys. Also, even if we give them gender neutral names now, what good is that going to do? It’s not like we’re going to know one from the other while they’re inside me.”

Lance shrugged. “I dunno. Just would be nice to know their names, that’s all.”

Keith sighed, long and tired. “Addison, Alex, Bailey, Cameron, Corey, Devon, Dylan… Frankie, Harley, Harper, Jesse, Kelley, Kennedy… Lee, Mackenzie, Madison, Morgan… Parker, Reagan… Riley, Sam, Sydney, Taylor… Stop me if you hear something you like.”

Lance quirked a brow. “Have you already looked up names without me?”

“No, but how hard is it to come up with names? You just think back to anyone you were ever friends with, went to school with, lived with… Reciting the alphabet in your head and then saying names that start with each letter is a good method too.” Keith looked down at his belly sitting happily in his lap, all big and round and proud of itself. “Don’t you think there’s something to… I dunno… seeing their faces and then coming up with a name? Like… Like meeting them and instantly knowing who they’ll be as a person and then giving them the right name.”

“Sure, that sounds nice, but, like… Five is a lot of names to come up with on the spot,” Lance said, again shrugging noncommittally. “It’s fine if you want to do things that way, though! I don’t mind, I was just wondering if you wanted to decide on names together.”

“Of course I want to do it together. That was never the issue. We just think differently about names, apparently.” Keith went quiet again, still looking down at the pregnant swell and contemplating everything going on in there. “How did your parents pick ‘Lance’?”

“Great question,” Lance said, looking up at the ceiling. “I don’t know if I ever asked. My dad is Scottish-American. Abuela was already cross that mom didn’t marry a Cuban, so she convinced my dad to give the kids Cuban names at least. She got the first two, but when more of us kept coming, dad probably sweet-talked mom into letting him name the rest of us.” He laughed a little bit. “That’s how my brothers ended up being Marco and Louis, but I got Lance and my sister got Veronica.”

Keith chuckled. Even if it was a best guess on Lance’s part, it was a good story. Keith didn’t have a name story. It wasn’t a Galra name, obviously. So did his dad name him? Or maybe his mom picked it out anyway. Did she look at his face and say the first thing that came to mind? He would never know. Slowly, the shaking in his shoulders went from being caused by chuckles to being caused by silent crying. Keith hastily wiped the tears already escaping his eyes.

“Oh, Keith, don’t cry,” Lance gasped, unsure of what exactly set his boyfriend off. He tightened his arms around Keith’s shoulders, looking distressed. “What’s wrong?”

“N-Nothing. I just… I dunno.” Keith inhaled sharply through his teeth. “Nothing. It’s not important. It’s stupid. Nothing.”

“Tell me,” Lance insisted, lifting one hand and petting back Keith’s long, dark hair.

“I don’t know why my name is Keith.” _And now I’ll never be able to ask either of my parents the story of how I got my name._ Except he didn’t say the second part out loud. It hurt too much even attempting to get it out. “Like I said: it’s stupid.”

“It’s not stupid,” Lance said, letting out a small breath. He figured it might be something like this. “Maybe… maybe it was your mom’s favorite Earth name. Or maybe you have an ancestor named Keith. We could probably find that one out, DNA testing and all,” he said, rocking Keith’s upper body a little in his arms. “Or maybe it’s a shortened, Americanized version of something else. A Japanese name or a Galra name or something. But whatever it is… I’m sure they thought about it a lot before they picked it. They knew it was perfect for you.”

Keith pressed both palms over his eyes in a futile attempt to block the tears from even forming. “They aren’t h-here anymore to help me, Lance.” He curled forward. “Kolivan can only do so much for me. Having my m-mom around right now… I mean… She could… Even my dad since… But sh-she…”

“You could still find her, Keith,” Lance insisted, moving his hands to firmly grab his boyfriend’s shoulders. “Don’t give up hope, okay? And even if it’s not for a long time, I’m always going to be here to help you, okay? I promise.”

“I don’t feel like… I can’t… Nnnh…” It wasn’t a panic attack, but Keith was definitely overwhelmed by intense emotions he wasn’t used to feeling. “I’m too exposed. I can’t. I want to be in my bed… my nest… whatever it is. I need to be in there. Help me get in there.”

“Sure. C’mere,” Lance said, putting his arms out for Keith to hold onto so he could get to his feet.

Providing Keith with a steady anchor for standing on his own was soon going to become more of a hoisting motion once he couldn’t stand up by himself anymore. He even needed Lance to spot him as he climbed into his nest. Keith then tugged on his boyfriend’s arm, inviting Lance into the nest with him for the first time. Fitting two people inside displaced some of the materials, but Keith would fix them later. Right now, he was too busy giving in to his emotions and burying himself as deeply into Lance’s chest as he could. Lance frowned sympathetically, collecting Keith up in his arms. One hand found itself in his boyfriend’s hair, petting it back. Sometimes he felt awkward, all gangly limbs and long fingers, but it was perfect for actually being able to encircle Keith and hold him closely.


	8. Figuring It Out

The beeping commlink in his pocket roused Keith from the sleep he fell into while wrapped up in Lance’s arms. The castle-ship was on its nocturnal cycle, so obviously everyone was asleep, but Keith wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to talk to Kolivan. Even if it meant accidentally waking up Lance as well. “Keith here,” he said, quietly enough to not disturb his boyfriend, but loudly enough that Kolivan could hear him.

“Keith. I got your request for correspondence. Is everything alright?” came Kolivan’s voice. He heard the hushed tones Keith was speaking in and adopted them too, just in case he was in a situation where being heard could prove deadly.

“That all depends.” Keith glanced up, getting a full view of Lance’s chin, but also being able to tell his eyes were still closed. “I’m having five kits.”

Kolivan made a noise on the other end of the commlink that was difficult to decipher without seeing his face—possibly shock. “Well… congratulations, Keith. That’s quite a rarity. I assume you have questions.”

“Not so much about the kits themselves, but I guess some behavioral questions… and some health questions.” Keith tried to choose where to start. Health questions were most important, so… “I’m sixteen weeks pregnant and I still have morning sickness. Is that normal? I’m also noticing my hair turning purple and I think my eyes are changing color. If morning sickness doesn’t normally last this long for you all, then my second guess is that my Galra biology is starting to dominate my human biology—with the hormones and all—so maybe I keep throwing up because the scales of my DNA are tipping.”

“I think that might be your answer,” Kolivan admitted, sounding slightly concerned. “Because I don’t quite know what would cause what you’re describing. But, I mean, externally, you are _very _human-looking. But it seems that internally, you’re more Galra than anything, at least as far as your reproductive biology is concerned. If human biology changes during pregnancy, it’s not too far-fetched to think that…” Kolivan paused when Lance snored and the commlink picked up the noise, “…that you may experience some external changes in a similar way.”

Keith hummed. “It’s been a few years since I took sex education in school, but I remember something about women don’t shed their hair follicles, so their hair gets really thick and shiny during pregnancy. Their nails grow in longer and faster too. Skin conditions like acne and reddish pigmentation also happens. So I guess I’m just getting a… Galra version of all that. Sort of. Does anything happen during a Galra pregnancy that I should know about?”

“Well…” Kolivan said, thinking as he spoke. “There’s nesting. You’ll start gathering items from around your living space that you deem important or comfortable and start unconsciously piling them up in one area. Usually a bedroom or some other kind of living quarters, but don’t be alarmed if you find yourself attracted to anywhere dark and closed-off, even if you don’t normally spend time there. You might find it appealing anyway. And then you might have some kind of overprotective behavior, either towards material things you ascribe importance to, other small or young creatures, or your mate. You may also notice a change in your taste buds, smells that attract or repel you, sound and light effecting you more than usual…”

The Red Paladin blushed. “Yeah, the nest thing is a behavior I was going to mention. I actually meant more health stuff that might come up, or warning signs that the kits or I aren’t doing well. But uh… I’m already nesting. I didn’t even know I was doing it until Lance pointed it out to me. Apparently, I’ve been taking blankets from spare rooms around the ship, my clothes, and even Lance’s clothes and made a nest on my bed. Lance… his scent is great. I’m noticing it more and more. I talked to him and… he told me that I haven’t experienced arousal like humans do.” Keith swallowed and pressed his knees together. “Kolivan, do you get all hot with a pain in the pit of your stomach once a month?”

“Yes. It’s a heat cycle,” Kolivan said. “If you spent time around other Galra more, you’d sync up to them, so that you could quickly and easily fulfill it when it comes up. But you never knew any other Galra growing up, so it’s not surprising that you confused it for human arousal.”

“Makes sense…” Keith glanced up at Lance again. He was so cute. His smell was the best. His habit of snuggling was great. He was funny, if not annoying sometimes. His protectiveness, dedication, and willingness to help were all ideal traits. “Kolivan, how do you know when you’ve chosen your mate rather than liking them as… I don’t know if you understand the term boyfriend or girlfriend… a courtship partner?”

“If you intend to stay with someone forever, Keith, then you’re bonded as a mated pair,” Kolivan said matter-of-factly. “And we Galra only pick a mate once, so if you feel that feeling, don’t let that person slip away from you. It’d be unlikely you’d feel it again.”

“But how do I know that’s what I’m feeling?” Keith asked again. “I know I’m having his kits, but that was sort of an accident. When I’m in heat, I go directly to him each time. He’s dedicated himself to me during this pregnancy and does every little thing he can to take care of me. I _think_ he might be my mate, but I’ve never had a Galra or human parent around to tell me what it’s like when you _know._”

“Well… instead of focusing on what you _do_ or what’s _literally_ happening, just try isolating only what you _feel_,” Kolivan suggested. He was not expecting to give this kind of talk today. “If you _feel_ like you’d literally die if he went away, or like you’d kill anyone who tried to take him from you, that’s a pretty sure sign.”

Keith felt a lump rise up in his throat at the mention of Lance leaving him. It was his biggest hang up in any relationship—platonic or romantic. He easily recalled how upset he got when he thought Lance saying “I love you” meant the Blue Paladin would disappear. Keith felt like his entire world would shatter. Was that his bond with Lance as a mate, though, or something else? “And… what happens to a kit when its sire and bearer abandon it before it has a chance to even reach its formative years?”

Kolivan sighed gently on the other line. “I suppose that would make it hard for that kit to understand what it means to really have a mate at all. Perhaps you’ll need to form your own definition of what it means, Keith.”

Keith gave his own sigh as well. He knew these were heavy questions for Kolivan, especially since they weren’t even related, but he was the closest Galra relationship Keith had. “I know this was a loaded conversation again, Kolivan. I really appreciate you talking me through all of this. Um… other than me having five kits, _are_ there any Galra pregnancy complications I should be aware of?”

“Well… first, some good news. You’ll likely know they’re coming before they even really start coming. Most Galra bearers, even first timers, can just sort of… feel it. Likely several hours or even a day before it happens, so you can be prepared.” Kolivan then paused, thinking more about complications. “They should arrive within four hours of contractions starting, and it shouldn’t take more than two hours between kits for them all to arrive. As for things to watch out for during the actual pregnancy, hm… Well, obvious stuff. Galra eat a lot when they’re expecting, so make sure you keep your diet healthy. Otherwise you’re at risk for a whole host of issues if you eat poorly. I already mentioned the small pelvis, but I don’t think you’ll have that problem. You’ll want to check on the kits regularly towards the end with a scanner of some kind and make sure they’re facing downwards. Don’t want them coming out backwards, and if they do, you want to be ready for it.”

“We, um… humans, I mean, deal with a lot of the same issues. Good to know things won’t be drastically different. The sort of… sixth sense thing you described isn’t something humans experience, but sounds like it will come in handy.” As for the math on hours in labor, Keith could expect to experience twelve fun-filled hours of contractions and pushing. Joy. “I’m not sure Lance—my potential mate—grasps quite yet that I have Galra genitalia suitable for giving birth. I’ll have to figure out how to have that conversation.” He yawned. “I’ve taken up enough of your time, Kolivan. This talk was very helpful for me. Unless something comes up, I don’t think I should need to bother you again. I know the Blade of Marmora is your priority.”

“Don’t hesitate to call if something seems wrong,” Kolivan said. “Don’t ever feel like you’re bothering me, Keith. Alright? Kolivan signing off.”

The commlink went dead, and just a moment later, Lance was stirring, blinking his eyes open. “I just caught the tail end of that,” he admitted softly, raising his eyebrows. “You have Galra _what_ now?”

Ohhhh _quiznak._ “Galra genitalia,” Keith repeated. He decided the best approach was the straightforward and mature option. His default. “You must realize that’s how I was able to get pregnant in the first place, Lance.”

“I mean, I guess,” Lance said, scratching at his cheek with one finger. “I guess I just never really _noticed_, which is surprising to me. You’d think I’d have noticed one of those half a dozen times.”

“Why are you surprised? What do you think I’m supposed to look like down there now that you know I have Galra parts?” Keith asked, his expression slowly becoming incredulous.

“That’s not what I mean,” Lance said, quickly waving one hand, the other still trapped under Keith. “Just like… I dunno… if you’re gonna give birth, it probably... lubricates... right?” he said, putting his free hand to his chin. “But I never noticed that. Maybe because we were already using artificial stuff? At least by the second time…”

Keith blushed suddenly. “Those memories are hazy for me,” he admitted. “I don’t remember what my body was doing, other than burning up. A feeling of burning, stabbing sensations, and your scent are all that ever come to mind when I try remembering those nights. But… I imagine that’s how a cloaca works, so probably, yeah.”

“So… if we had sex right now, do you think it would...” Lance tried, also turning red around the ears.

“Lubricate itself? Probably. If you stimulated it enough,” Keith answered. “When I’m in heat, I’m bet I’m wet all the time so that I’m ready to receive a partner at any minute. Since I’m not in heat right now, you might have to coax it into lubricating.” He studied the blush saturating Lance’s face. “Are you saying you want to have sex right now?”

“Well I wouldn’t say no,” Lance admitted, his leg shifting, making his toes touch the edge of the nest. “But I get it if you don’t want to.”

Keith pursed his lips for a few seconds. “Lance… I’m not sure that I’m going to be aroused as long as I’m pregnant. My heat cycle got me to do the thing it wanted me to do, so now there’s no _need_ for me to have sex again. Until, you know, I have the urge to bear more kits. I’m not saying that I’m opposed to having sex with you, but just be aware that… while I’m pregnant, it’s really going to be all up to you when we have sex, and I’ll agree or disagree depending on how I feel.”

“I know, I just… Well, it’s just kind of weird,” Lance said. “I’m still trying to get used to the concept. I mean, when I imagined how our sex lives might change after we actually got together for real, I thought… It doesn’t matter,” he said, shaking his head against the pillow he was leaning on. “It is what it is. So the question is… would you agree or disagree, right now?”

A few beats of silence. “You don’t mind how big my stomach is? And you’re not turned off knowing that… my parts down there are alien?”

“What? No,” Lance responded, taking his turn to look incredulous. “You kidding me? If you had a sexiness quotient, and those things were actually minus points, you’d still have a passing grade, baby,” he said, waggling his eyebrows for a few seconds before he realized Keith was giving him a look. “Oh, c’mon. I’m improvising here.”

“So, wait, does that mean those are plus points?” Keith asked, now looking equal parts confused and curious. Lance _did_ snuggle his belly a lot. Maybe it was a kink the Blue Paladin had. Lance also hit on a wide variety of aliens, so non-human genitalia probably wasn’t an issue for him, so long as he could stick his dick _somewhere._

Lance shrugged. “The belly’s like a zero sum. I don’t mind it either way,” he said nonchalantly, running a hand down Keith’s side and over the already generous curve. “Those are my kids in there, I mean. It’d be weird of me to be skeeved out more than not, I think. As for the alien parts… well, that’s what I’m asking to find out, right?”

“I wouldn’t judge you if my belly turned you on, but I’m glad you aren’t repulsed by it.” Again, though, Lance wouldn’t snuggle Keith as much as he did if he was creeped out. “Right.” Keith gave it a few more ticks of thought before nodding. “If you want to have sex right now... I don’t mind.”


	9. Off-Season Distraction

Well, it wasn’t the most enthusiastic thing in the world, but Lance supposed it was the best reaction he could hope for in the “off-season.”

“Alright,” he said, still running his hand up and down Keith’s side. How did one begin this sort of thing when their partner was just lying there, staring at them? Deciding to just go for it and hope for the best, Lance leaned over, locking his boyfriend into a kiss to start.

Keith returned the kiss, even taking the initiative to deepen the gesture with an open mouth. Instead of shutting down, his brain turned its gears trying to figure out how to get himself more into this for Lance’s sake. He pulled away from the kiss so he could speak. “Get naked so I can get your scent.”

“Okay,” Lance said, quickly doing as he was told and shedding his shirt up over his head, revealing tanned skin. He considered it for a second, and then draped it over the side of the nest. If it ended up living here, that was a sacrifice he was willing to make. His pants and boxers went next, and then he shifted so he was practically sitting in Keith’s lap, lying over him as he went back into the kiss.

Keith kissed back, but then pulled away again. “Wait,” he gasped. “Don’t think this is weird, okay? Humans only have three scent glands and the ones behind our ears aren’t very strong. I don’t want to slam my face into your lap, so I’m going to smell you in the next most-saturated place.” Keith pulled Lance closer. Rather than bury his nose in his boyfriend’s armpit, he nuzzled near it, getting a deep whiff of Lance’s natural scent. It was different than body odor, which was not Keith’s goal. What he was after was all pheromones; something only his finely-tuned Galra senses could detect. Everyone on the ship smelled different, actually. Keith started noticing that lately. Not even Pidge and Matt shared a scent. Well, they did, but that was genetics.

The longer Keith breathed against Lance’s skin, the deeper he drifted into the euphoric haze that prompted him to knead his boyfriend’s body under his fingers and hum as his best substitute for purring. “There you are…” Keith whispered, eyes closed, and a slight grin tugging at his lips.

“Good?” Lance asked. He was almost more fascinated than anything, watching Keith’s expression change. Besides, all of their previous sexual encounters had been hot and quick, all panting and roughness and sharp movements. If Keith not being in heat was their one chance to go languid and slow, maybe Keith wouldn’t mind so much that he wasn’t horny while they did this. Lance wondered if that theory was true, and decided to test it by pushing his face against Keith’s neck, taking his time as he ran his tongue up from the crook to the back of his ear, biting the lobe and rolling it between his teeth.

“Outstanding,” Keith sighed. He wished he could bottle Lance’s pheromones. Sleeping in a nest soaked with them wasn’t enough. Keith wanted to be buried alive in them. Nothing else smelled as superb as Lance. Damn… he had it hard. There was no doubt in Keith’s mind that Kolivan would insist this was mate behavior. Craving a person and always wanting to wrapped up in their essence was a surefire sign you were bananas about them. “Ahhh…” he gasped and squirmed a little at the feeling of Lance’s warm, wet tongue dragging across his own pale skin.

That got Lance’s attention. It was definitely a good response. His lips traveled back down from Keith’s ear, finding a spot on his neck and biting, sucking, his hands preoccupying themselves with sliding up Keith’s side and hiking his shirt up. Still sat in his boyfriend’s lap, his hips sat heavily on Keith’s hips, moving of their own volition on occasion as he worked the other boy’s neck.

Keith jumped at every little nip to his neck. Did Lance always bite him like this? It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy it; he just couldn’t remember. All those heat cycles truly were blurs in his memory. Keith lifted his arms so the black shirt could come up over his head the rest of the way. Toned chest muscles immediately sloped down into the round shape of his soft, large belly. Keith never was sure how he’d react when letting Lance see him shirtless for the first time since the beginning of the pregnancy. Turns out, his reaction was to fruitlessly cross his arms over his torso, even while continuing to kiss and nuzzle his boyfriend.

Lance noticed right away when Keith’s arms snaked across his chest. “Hey,” he said, taking his own hands and unraveling Keith’s, pushing them aside until his wrists were pinned to the mattress. “Let me see you,” he murmured softly, letting his mouth continue its journey until it found a nipple, licking and sucking at it to see if that got him another interesting reaction.

“W-Wait…” Keith squirmed even harder. His face burned red from his hairline down to his chin. All his Blade training meant he was still stronger than Lance, so Keith wriggled his arms free, pushing the other boy’s face away with one hand and wrapping the other arm across his belly. “I know you don’t mind, but maybe _I do._ I… I didn’t think I would, but… I used to look like you and now I don’t. I don’t have the physique of a Paladin anymore.”

Lance pouted when he was so easily overpowered, his cheeks squished together by Keith’s pushing hand. “It’s not exactly gonna be easy to do this without me looking at you, Keith… What do you need to feel comfortable?”

“I didn’t say you couldn’t look at me,” Keith argued. “But don’t put your mouth on me there. I’m not a girl.” He reached, grabbed the shirt Lance discarded a few minutes ago, and buried his face in the fabric with a deep, long inhale. “Give me a compliment,” he said, voice muffled behind the shirt.

“Aw. But you were squirming and turning red. It was cute,” Lance pouted, leaning forward and pressing his forehead against Keith’s through the shirt. “You’re beautiful when you blush. And when you don’t, but especially when you do.”

Keith curled his fingers deeper into the shirt. “What’s one of your favorite things about me? Why do you like me so much?”

“Well… I like that you’re headstrong, frustratingly good at what you do, awkward in a cute way sometimes… and you’ve got a nice butt, which is also great,” Lance said, nodding his head sagely.

_Okay. Okay. Okay._ That was enough compliments. Any more and Keith’s head would explode from embarrassment. He tossed the shirt back onto the edge of the nest, wrapped his arms around Lance’s neck, and pulled his boyfriend down into a renewed kiss.

Lance grinned into the kiss, content that he’d apparently said the right things. The longer they made out, the more he could feel his blood starting to rush south. His hips occasionally rolled against Keith’s hips and the lower curve of his stomach. Lance’s fingers danced across the pale skin going down Keith’s side until he managed to unbutton his boyfriend’s pants and slip one hand into his boxers, feeling around for some sign of this alien genitalia responding at all to what was going on. “Anything yet?” he murmured against Keith’s lips, pressing two fingers teasingly inwards.

Keith gasped again, breathy and high-pitched. Lance got his answer when something warm, thick, and slick dribbled down his probing fingers. There wasn’t a single sign of an erection, but Keith was definitely ready to receive a partner. It was very odd for the hybrid teen. This was his first time experiencing anything sexual outside of a heat cycle. There was a genuinely confusing disconnect between his brain and his genitals right now. Stimulation was definitely happening, but the Galra part of his brain in charge of reproductive decisions and behavior didn’t know _what_ was going on. Keith was already pregnant! What was this?!

“That’s a good sound,” Lance said, a smile slowly unfurling across his lips. Maybe Keith _didn’t_ have to just put up with Lance’s horniness and not enjoy himself when he was out of heat! This was great! Lance wouldn’t say it aloud, but feeling that warmth seeping across his fingers also made his own length twitch with attention. He used his other hand to shimmy his boyfriend’s pants down to his knees, getting himself a better angle as he slid his two fingers back inside, hooking them up this time.

So much was going on in Keith’s mind that he couldn’t think of anything to say. Instead, he let one hand lace in Lance’s hair to pet him encouragingly. The other hand was busy raking back into his own bangs. This felt great but was wildly unnecessary. His brain told him that. The conflict was very distracting. As Lance worked him, more warm slickness dripped down lanky fingers all the way to his wrist.

Once Lance was satisfied, he pulled his hand back, still amazed at the slickness on his fingers that he couldn’t believe he’d never noticed before. “Look at me,” he suddenly said, waiting for Keith to stop panting and open his eyes to observe Lance putting the fingers in his mouth, cleaning them off with his tongue. When he was done, he took them out from between his lips with an obscene _pop_. “We haven’t even really started and I’ve already decided that this is _definitely_ a plus point,” he purred, voice low.

Keith erupted into a new shade of rosy red that covered his entire face like a mask. Oh god, Lance put it in his mouth! _Was that gross? Was that flattering? _Lance’s low, seductive voice met his ears and Keith’s cloaca twitched, more lubricant leaking out of him and making a dark, wet patch on the sheets. Being able to acknowledge his own emotional investment made this a different experience than usual. He wondered briefly if that was why he was able to respond physically the way he did. Again, no erection, but this was pretty good, right? Lance definitely thought so.

Lance’s smile got even wider. Red was an attractive color on Keith, and finally knowing that he could get his boyfriend all flushed and turned on without his biological clock contributing was fueling his ego, too. “Breathe, I’m going in,” he said, lining up his length with the now slick hole and sliding himself in all the way to the hilt, marveling at just how easy it was. “How’s that feel?” he asked, breathy.

_Breathe? Breathe._ Keith quickly inhaled so he could slowly let it back out during the initial penetration. “Oohhhhn…” he moaned quietly and tilted his head backwards into the collection of pillows and clothing. It was all of the pleasure with none of the effort. “I… I feel weird, but you feel good.”

“Tell me if I hit a good spot,” Lance said, shifting his hips back and then forward again. He had to look down, trying to make sure he was doing this right, and to confirm that nothing crazy unexpected was happening. “I want to make sure you’re enjoying it…”

“The Galra-half of my brain wants me to stop because I’m already pregnant, so I don’t need to be doing this,” Keith said, panting between words. “The human-half of my brain wants me to keep going because I like the way this feels.” He swallowed thickly with the rosy glow still masking his face. “You can… You can go a little harder and faster if you want.”

“Try and turn your brain off for a bit,” Lance suggested, doing as he was told and planting his knees, hands on Keith’s hips, so he could start thrusting harder and faster. “Just enjoy the feeling.”

“Tch. Easy for you to say,” Keith quipped, not without his bite even during sex. When was his brain ever turned off? There was always too much to think about. Lance could flip his mind off and on like a switch and just drift away to some imaginary place probably full of girls in bikinis, dudes in speedos, and tropical smoothies galore. Must be nice being so simple-minded.

“Don’t pout at me like that,” Lance said, leaning forward on his hands and nipping at Keith’s lower lip demonstrably, before smirking as he put his hands back on Keith’s hips and angled him up, leaning him further onto his back. “Are you making fun of me in your head?”

Keith sucked his bottom lip into his mouth after that little nip. Was Lance this frisky and prone to biting and sucking all the other times they had sex? Keith still couldn’t remember. He grunted softly when Lance adjusted his position. “Now why would I do that?” he replied with a coy smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.

“Because that’s what you always do,” Lance responded, digging his fingers into the soft flesh he was holding. “And you like to goad me on,” he added, pushing in one particularly deep thrust to punctuate his statement.

“Mmmmmh!” Keith grabbed onto different areas of the nest to anchor himself. That was definitely one of those good spots Lance mentioned. The hybrid-teen was still a wet noodle between the legs, but the blush spreading across his entire body and the sweat dotting his skin were reliable indicators that Keith was enjoying himself. His increasingly wet and slick cloaca was also strong evidence.

“Good?” Lance asked, like he already had multiple times throughout this experience. Keith simultaneously being clearly turned on but not having a boner to speak of was still weird, but his reactions were telling. “Tell me what you like, okay?”

Lance was an incredibly attentive lover. Keith guessed he shouldn’t be surprised, though, with how attentive Lance was in every other facet of their relationship. Their combined hormonal perfume wafted through the air the longer they each sweat. Their skin rubbed together, creating the perfect friction that mixed their scents into something else entirely. “I wish you could smell what I smell,” he sighed. Tell Lance what he liked? Keith didn’t even know what Keith liked. “Just… Just whatever… I guess?”

“Just whatever?” Lance echoed, confused. He leaned over, kissing Keith on the lips before straightening up again. “Don’t worry… if you can’t come up with something on the spot,” he said, his words momentarily broken up by little pants and moans that came from the back of his throat. “Shout when something feels good… And I’ll keep doing it. Okay?”

Keith nodded shakily. The tone of Lance’s voice and the pitch of his moans were like honey in Keith’s ears. The lanky teen achieved a deeper octave that seemed out of character for him, but was that much sexier for it. “You’re such a natural at this,” Keith moaned when Lance hit a particularly sweet spot deep inside him again.

It wasn’t very straightforward, but Lance supposed that compliment was supposed to be telling him to stay the course. It also made his dick twitch, turned on by hearing Keith moan and sigh. Lance tried his best to stay at the same angle as he made his thrusts faster and a little rougher. “Thank you,” he purred, stroking his fingers across Keith’s hip bone. “You feel amazing.”

Compliments fueled Lance’s ego. Compliments made Keith a blushing mess. The colorful mask on his face changed from rosy to a bright apple red right before he slapped his palms over his cheeks in order to hide his embarrassment. The breathy, high-pitched sighs started coming back too, punctuating each of Lance’s thrusts. Keith squirmed under those lanky fingers and all their sweet caresses.

Lance chuckled a little, from somewhere deep in his chest. He felt like a king right now. “You look great in red,” he murmured, deciding to voice his thoughts from earlier just to see if he could get Keith even more riled up.

“Well, I’m not, uh… I’m not the Red Paladin for… for nothing,” Keith replied, attempting a terrible joke of the finest caliber. It seemed like something Lance would find hilarious. Keith just couldn’t believe he said it. He groaned loudly. He felt like there should be steam coming out of his ears he was so hot with embarrassment right now. “Oh my _gooood…_”

Lance barked with shaky laughter, smiling wide like a cat that caught the canary. “That was _so_ cute,” he said, squeezing Keith’s sides and then running his hands up and down, giving little appreciative scratches with his nails as he kept trying to nail that sweet spot that made Keith mewl and sigh. “I love it when you indulge me.”

“Don’t get used to it,” Keith mumbled from behind his hands. The feeling of Lance scratching and rubbing all up and down his body sparked a new sensation. Keith started making that humming version of a purr again. He turned his body different ways while chasing Lance’s hands. Oooooh this felt good. Satisfied, happy little sighs puffed past Keith’s lips as he again squirmed bashfully in the nest.

“You like that too, huh?” Lance asked, since Keith still wasn’t being verbal. He started moving his hands in time with his hips, hoping he might be able to get Keith to react to both the scratching and his length hitting that hot spot deep inside of him at the same time, if he kept thrusting hard and fast enough. Unable to stimulate Keith’s dick to make him cum, Lance had to get creative to figure out what exactly made his lover’s engine rev.

Keith might have been more vocal about this new revelation if it didn’t occur in the back of his mind that he wanted his boyfriend to pet him all over like a giant cat. It was probably another Galra thing, therefore nothing to be embarrassed about, but it wasn’t every day a human wanted to be pampered with languid strokes and gentle scratches. “Mmmmh… Mmmhh… Mmmmmmmmmhhmmm…” One hand tangled up in to his own bangs while the other gripped the edge of the nest. Lance found the perfect combination with this. “Mmmmmhhh… Ahhhh… Ah!”

“There we go,” Lance breathed. He felt like his skin was on fire. Every noise of appreciation and pleasure Keith made went straight to his dick. He bit his lip, inhaling sharply through his nose. “I’m about… almost there,” he warned, his pace picking up.

“That’s okay,” Keith moaned. “Just keep going.” Keith was never going to cum as long as his hormones were preoccupied with other tasks. At least that meant Lance could draw this out or carry it to the end as quickly as possible. Whichever felt better on him. Keith? Well, Keith was here for the pets now. That was established.

“Keith,” Lance moaned, his face turning bright red and his whole body shivering after a few minutes more of thrusting and moaning, his back straightening when he came. His long fingers flexed on their perches, his toes curled, and the sigh that came from his mouth was so strangled that it was barely there at all.

Keith opened his dark eyes when he heard his name and was glad he did to be able to see Lance in all his pique glory. Now it was his turn to watch his boyfriend blush. Everything about Lance from the tilt of his head, down his ramrod spine, all the way to his little clenched toes was a sight Keith wanted to drink in forever. If there was one thing he recalled from his heat cycles, it was Lance eagerly taking him from behind, and Keith usually encouraged him to for now obvious reasons. Having sex face-to-face had its own perks, though. “You… You’re gorgeous…”

Lance gulped in air for a moment longer, opening his eyes only when Keith spoke to him. It was hard to look embarrassed since a red flush was already spread across his cheeks, but the way he ducked his chin down indicated enough that Keith’s compliment made him shy. “Thanks… you were… wow,” he said, laughing gently at his own inability to come up with anything poetic.

“How was it compared to the other times we’ve been together?” Keith placed one of his hands atop Lance’s and rubbed with his thumb. “Was our first time good?”

Lance couldn’t help a pervy smile. “It was different than this,” he started, picking his words carefully. “But it was definitely good. _Very_ good. You were insatiable.”

Keith hummed. “Is that so?” He rolled his eyes at Lance’s perverted grin, but it was a solid confirmation that their sex life up to this point was never boring. Keith didn’t think he could live it down if he was a boring lover. “You apologized once about maybe taking advantage of me when I was in heat. I already told you it was okay, and I’m sure the same thing goes for you, but I also want to say sorry if I was ever aggressive with you in any way.”

“You were pretty forceful,” Lance hummed, tilting his head from side to side. His voice was still hoarse and kept quiet after his gradual come down. “I never minded, though. Sometimes it hurt, but mostly it was sexy.” He slid back on his knees and then crawled up next to Keith on the bed, taking his hand and lacing it in with his as he went.

“That doesn’t even sound like me,” Keith mused. “I’m not insisting that I’m demure, but I never thought of myself as the forceful type. To me, it sounds like you’re describing another person. Not being able to completely remember doesn’t help. It almost sounds like I never took the time to enjoy it. Hopefully at least you did.”

“Don’t worry about me, babe. If I wasn’t having a good time, I would have tried to stop you,” Lance said, chuckling gently and depositing a kiss on Keith’s sweat-speckled forehead. “Honestly, the fact that I was enjoying myself maybe a little too much is probably why I never noticed that something was up about you in those moments.”

Keith closed one eye against the kiss. “Fair point.” He yawned widely and suddenly his entire body felt like jelly. “I forgot it’s technically the middle of the night. We were sleeping, weren’t we?”

“We were,” Lance confirmed, running a hand down to Keith’s belly and idly rubbing the pads of his fingers along its outer curve. “And then we got distracted,” he hummed, pleased.

Both Keith’s eyes closed this time as he started his humming purr. His fingers even curled and uncurled against his chest like a cat baking biscuits. “Distractions aren’t always so bad, I guess.”

Lance grinned toothily, leaning in and depositing an obnoxious amount of little pecks and smooches on Keith’s forehead and cheeks now. “Stop being so fucking cute.”

Keith scrunched up his face and tried turning away from the onslaught of kisses. “I’m not being cute. Shut up.”

“Yes, you are,” Lance argued good-naturedly, chasing after Keith with his puckered lips. “You’re purring and kneading the air and it’s stupid adorable.”

“Yeah, well… You’re the one petting me so… y’know… you’re making me be cute.” Dear god, what was he even saying right now? “Just whatever. Go to sleep.”

Lance pursed his lips together, smiling and forcibly keeping his laughter back. He wrapped his arms tightly around Keith, collecting him up into a smothering cuddle, rubbing his face against his boyfriend’s hair. “Okay, okay. Good night.”


	10. Felines and Magpies

Keith went through some behavioral changes after his conversation with Kolivan and his first hormonally sober sexual encounter with Lance. He definitely had strong feelings of dying if he lost Lance. A certain possessiveness started creeping in as well. It rubbed Keith the wrong way whenever visiting females saw it necessary to flirt with the Blue Paladin at dinner parties Allura threw for dignitaries and the like. It even bothered him when Hunk and Lance got chummy together.

Not only that, but Keith had an overwhelming urge to provide for Lance. As a result, snacks and drinks started showing up outside Lance’s room. Keith would not be there to present the victuals, nor would there be a note of any kind. The food was just there. And then they turned into actual gifts like colorful beaded or woven bracelets, alien pukka shell chokers, mermaid charms, glass-blown fish figurines… Anything Keith thought would help ease his boyfriend’s home sickness for the beaches of Cuba. The gifts also meant Keith was actually leaving the ship and going to malls with Coran, Shiro, or Hunk as his escorts.

Right now, Keith carefully crouched in front of Lance’s room. This was not easy at nineteen weeks pregnant. The new bowl terrarium had sea water, sand, and tiny seashells. It had a distinct salty ocean smell. Keith considered it his best find so far. The problem came when he tried standing up again and was utterly stuck in his squatted position.

“Oh, Keith.” Shiro’s voice came from the end of the hall, and he changed his course to start walking up to the boy after spotting him crouched in the middle of the hallway. “How’s that terrarium you bought looking in your…” The man paused midway through his sentence, only now noticing that the terrarium he was talking about sat on the floor right next to Keith. Shiro’s first thought was that Keith lost his balance and dropped the item, but that was absurd, since it was standing upright and not smashed or cracked at all. “What’re you doing?”

_Welp. This was embarrassing_. It’d be one thing for Lance to find Keith stuck, since Lance basically dedicated himself to helping Keith through good and bad, but it was an entire upgrade in mortification to be found my someone else like this. “I didn’t buy it for me,” he decided to say. “I bought it for Lance. I was just leaving it here for him.”

“Leaving it here?” Shiro echoed, coming to stand over Keith with a quirked eyebrow, his face puzzled. “Why not just give it to him next time you see him? You two see each other every day.”

“Oh… um…” Why _did_ he do it this way? Keith wasn’t sure. It was just his instinct. “I haven’t given him any of his gifts in person, actually. I just set them here and then go do my next thing for the day. I guess… I don’t need the gratitude that comes with giving him something directly. The satisfaction comes from knowing I provided for him.”

“Don’t you think he might like to get it from you in person, though?” Shiro asked. He was also starting to suspect that Keith wasn’t getting up from his crouch because he couldn’t, so he wordlessly stuck out his hand to see if he would take it.

“Probably,” Keith admitted. “But this is how my brain has been telling me to do it. I already fight the urge to bring him butchered proteins when Hunk takes me to food markets. Going against some Galra instincts is exhausting enough without trying to fight all of them.” Speaking of which, his hair was a definitive dark violet now from roots-to-tips. His eyes were also a murky green instead of the dark, hazel grey-blue he usually sported. When Shiro offered his hand, Keith made a motion that he needed both hands. He hoisted himself up with Shiro’s help, groaning softly and leaning back once on his feet, pushing out his large belly. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” Shiro said. He observed the change in Keith’s appearance, but he never felt the need to point it out. Keith was obviously aware, no sense in bringing attention to it and possibly making the teen self-conscious.

That was when the door slid open, revealing Lance dressed in his everyday jeans and jacket. His eyes widened and he brandished a finger when he noticed Keith. “Finally!” he gasped, “I never get to frickin’ say _thank you;_ you always run before I pick up whatever you’ve left!”

Keith frowned slightly. “I don’t _run away_, you numbskull. I just got done telling Shiro that I don’t do it for the gratitude. I do it because as your boyfriend I should provide for you. You don’t need to thank me. The act alone of leaving you gifts makes me feel good.” He turned his grumpy glare on Shiro. “Also, I know you’re staring. Everyone has been staring.”

Lance opened his mouth, but didn’t seem to have a response for that. Did he just get berated for trying to show gratitude? “Sorry,” Shiro said, smiling softly and putting his hands up. “I’m curious, but I knew it wouldn’t be helpful for me to ask about it if you hadn’t had anything to say yourself.”

“How will you know if I do or don’t have anything to say if you don’t ask?” Keith retorted. “Asking is a lot less rude than staring. Staring makes me feel like you all are silently judging me. Lance, don’t step on your terrarium!” Reflexively, Keith tried to kneel down and move the glass bowl out of harm’s way, but his totally absent center of gravity meant he went falling towards the floor instead while making a frantic grab for Shiro’s torso.

“Whoa!” Shiro exclaimed, instantly bending his knees and putting his arms back out to catch Keith before he hit the ground. Lance sighed, relieved, and then picked up the terrarium in his hands as Shiro righted Keith back onto his feet with a small grunt of effort.

“Thank you,” Lance said pointedly, looking at the delicate glass bowl in his hands with a sad smile pulling at the corners of his lips. Even though Lance never got to see Keith’s face as he presented one of these gifts, their intent was pretty clear. And it was touching, despite what Lance originally assumed was bashfulness.

Keith kept a secure grip on Shiro’s arm, not trusting himself to stand just yet. His balance was shoddy and his joints ached something fierce. The saddened expression on Lance’s face is what earned his full attention. “You don’t like it…” Keith murmured.

“It’s not that,” Lance insisted, shaking his head. “I’m still homesick, that’s all. But I appreciate the gift. I can tell you’ve been trying to make me feel better,” he said, gesturing backwards into his room. The open door revealed all the little trinkets and knick-knacks all about the room, each one put away in what was now its proper place. He then took a big breath in through his nose, letting it out shakily from his mouth. “It even smells like the ocean.”

“But it’s not working.” Keith tightened his grip on Shiro’s arm. He felt frustrated with himself. Lance happily and proudly put all his gifts on display, but he still had that disconsolate look on his face. “I thought bringing beach things to you would make you feel better, but it’s not working. I’m probably making you feel worse.” Keith frowned even more and grit his teeth. “I suck at this!”

Shiro’s face was somewhere between forced stoicism and restrained awkwardness.

“No, hey,” Lance said, looking up from the terrarium with a frown. “You don’t suck at this. It’s not your fault that I feel homesick, Keith, and I really do like the gifts. Honest.”

Lance’s words did very little to make Keith feel better. He thought he’d been doing something a good boyfriend should do, but now he felt like it was all backfiring. Keith couldn’t even do this right. “Shiro, will you help me to the infirmary? I don’t feel good.”

“Yeah, of course,” Shiro said, nodding.

Lance immediately looked alarmed. “Are you okay?”

“No, my whole body aches and I’m lightheaded.” The newly added emotional distress wasn’t helping. Keith figured it was due to all his mall excursions over the last few weeks. Staying active was a Catch-22 since it was best for his circulation and maintaining muscles, but it also put a severe strain on all his joints. Throbbing jolts shot up from his ankles into his knees each time he took a step with Shiro’s help, making him wince.

Shiro frowned. “Do you want me to pick you up and carry you there, Keith? You don’t look so good.” Meanwhile, Lance was following after them, the terrarium placed on a table just inside his bedroom door so he didn’t fall too far behind.

It was a small blow to his pride, but… “If you don’t think I’ll be too heavy,” Keith conceded.

They crossed paths with Hunk who obviously just left the kitchen since he had a freshly-made, huge milkshake in his hand. He watched Shiro march diligently past him with a rough-looking Keith in his arms and Lance trotting behind with an expression on his face like a hurt puppy. “You guys okay?” Hunk asked as he executed an about-face and followed after them.

“Keith doesn’t feel well and I think it’s kinda my fault,” Lance admitted, in a quiet voice so Shiro and Keith couldn’t hear him.

Hunk watched Keith actually turn his face into Shiro’s chest to hide his pained expression. “I find that way too hard to believe. You basically lay your coat over mud puddles for him. What’d you possibly do to make him like this?”

“He gave me a gift and I didn’t react the way he wanted me to, and instantly he said he didn’t feel well,” Lance said, bringing his hand up to his mouth and chewing on his knuckles as he often did when he was nervous. “I think I stressed him out.”

“Dude, Lance, he’s pregnant with five human-Galra hybrid kittens. Someone adjusting the thermostat stresses him out. I seriously doubt it was anything you personally said or did.” At the infirmary, Keith asked Shiro to help him change into one of the white body suits. Hunk stood back at a distance with Lance, slurping on the milkshake as he watched, and then choked when he saw the purple hyena-style spots on the back of Keith’s shoulders, around his hips, and on his ankles. “Whoa, when did that start happening?” he gawked and shook Lance’s arm.

“Oh, I dunno, a couple of weeks ago maybe?” Lance said, still talking around his hand. “No idea why it’s happening, but I’ve got some pretty good guesses, obviously.”

“Keith’s turning Gaaaalraaa…” Hunk hissed under his breath.

“Probably just like, temporarily, though, right?” Lance answered in a whisper, sounding like he was trying to convince himself just as much.

Hunk cupped his hand against the side of his mouth to direct his voice solely at Lance. “Is it gonna freak you out if he doesn’t change back? I mean it’d be one thing if he turned into an Altean because they basically look like us just with cheek tattoos. Galra are like, giant purple space pumas with bat ears. I think it’ll freak me out. Scratch that, I _know_ it’ll freak me out if he doesn’t change back to a human. His hair is already purple. What if he turns purple all over his skin? What if his ears get bigger?”

“I’ve thought about that. If anyone’s gonna be freaked out, though, it’s him,” Lance said, crossing his free arm over his chest so he didn’t start gesturing wildly in Keith’s direction. “He’s already worried that our kids are gonna come out looking like aliens. He hasn’t mentioned any feelings he’s having towards all the purple at all, but he _hates_ when anyone mentions seeing him as a Galra before anything else. How do you think he’s gonna feel if he never turns back?! Listen, I can deal with alien. I’ve hit on more aliens than I can count on two hands. But this is so much more to him than it is to me.”

“Well it obviously doesn’t help that Galra are public enemy number one all across the universe. If he gets any worse and keeps trying to go out in public, it’s gonna be a whole torches and pitchforks riot. Like chasing Frankenstein’s monster into the windmill and then burning it down with him inside. And if he _really_ doesn’t change back, you can forget about ever going back to Earth, man.”

“Look, we can’t do anything about it,” Lance said, running his hands up into his short hair. “Right now, I just want to make sure he’s alive and not about to keel over at any given moment.”

Hunk looked back towards the pod when he heard it hiss shut. Wow, that white suit left nothing to the imagination. He waved at Shiro to come join them. Keith couldn’t hear them from inside the pod, but Hunk still wanted to do a team huddle so he couldn’t read their lips or their faces. “So can we take inventory of Keith for a second?” With the milkshake still in hand, Hunk only had five fingers with which to count. “He still refers to his babies as kits. His hair turned purple. His eyes are turning yellow. He’s got spots and might get purple skin. He’s made a nest in his room. He sniffs everything and everybody. Loud noises freak him out now. He’s doing the whole dead-bird-at-the-door thing. Is this a human pregnancy or a cat pregnancy? Because I feel like it’s leaning way more towards the latter.”

“Does it matter?” Lance asked, again crossing his arms to prevent himself from waving them around.

“I mean, possibly,” Shiro said, putting a hand to his chin. “I don’t know a lot about cats, but if Galra pregnancies are closer to those than humans, it might be prudent to find out about the differences.”

“Keith’s been talking to Kolivan this entire time, getting information about _Galra_, even, not _cats_. Surely if there was something we needed to know, he’d have told us, right?”

Hunk blinked. “Have you _met_ Keith? He takes everything that happens to him in stride. Unless it’s life or death, he’s not going to say a word, and even in the case of life or death I’m not confident he would actually speak up. We had a feral cat colony on my street and the girl cats were always having kittens. They lactate, have pee accidents, get crazy affectionate with people but then are mean to other cats, get restless and meow a lot because they’re so fat and uncomfortable, wander around like they lost something, and then they disappear to dark and quiet places where they actually have their kittens. When’s the last time you knew a pregnant woman to do any of that? Except lactate.”

“Okay, but if he won’t tell us, don’t you think he’d be insulted if we started treating him like a cat?” Lance said, sounding completely at a loss.

“Best we don’t jump to conclusions, but also that we’re prepared for anything,” Shiro said, making a calming gesture with one of his hands.

Hunk’s eyes flickered back-n-forth between his friends. This felt awkward now. He slowly raised the milkshake up to his mouth and slurped loudly on the straw. _Weeeeeelp…_

“Attention Paladins! And Matt!” Coran’s voice bellowed over the ship’s speakers. “We’ve received a request from a planet in one of the distant sectors to disassemble a Galra communication and weapons outpost. Everyone suit-up and meet on the bridge!”

“Oh! Hey! Whad’ya know. Duty calls!” Hunk choked, laughing awkwardly and then hoofing it out of the med bay while trying to drink his milkshake as quickly as possible so it didn’t go to waste. Lance frowned, looking over at the pod where Keith lay unawares. Shiro put a hand on his shoulder and then thumbed urgently towards the bridge, and with one last look, Lance rushed out the door after their leader.

“This is Trofurus!” Coran pulled up a holomap of a planet that was mostly water with small to medium-sized mountainous islands. “The Galra seized their largest island and built on it a communications outpost fitted with offensive canons. Understandably, the Trofurians want the whole thing demolished. The big island is said to be the resting place of their creation god and they want to restore the temple that once stood there before the Galra took it over. We’ll have to wormhole there. Any questions?”

“Seems pretty straightforward,” Shiro said, already seated in Black’s cockpit and ready to go.

“Let’s move out!” Lance agreed, enthusiastic to be behind Red’s controls despite his reservations about leaving Keith without a proper farewell.

“Don’t be too quick to blow it apart, guys. Matt and I can salvage the place for parts,” Pidge insisted with her brother situated over her shoulder inside Green’s cockpit.

“Uh, has everyone else forgotten the last time we brought Galra technology aboard the castle-ship?” Hunk asked. “The whole pace grew a spooky split personality and tried killing all of us.”

Pidge scoffed. “I changed Rover’s programming, didn’t I? Letting all that tech go to waste would be sacrilege. I’m serious guys! Salvage first, destruction last.”

“Safety first,” Shiro corrected gently over the radio. “We can try and be delicate, but the most important thing is that we all get in and out in one piece. We don’t know what might be waiting for us down there, so be on your guards. This was a weapons outpost, so we need to make sure we don’t trigger any defensive measures.”

The lions launched once Allura safely navigated the castle through a wormhole and could then get in Blue to join everyone else. Hunk swore up and down that the natives of Trofurus were the spitting images of the god totems he grew up with on Samoa. He and Pidge made multiple trips back and forth between the outpost and the ship so as to collect all the tech and hardware she wanted. It took nearly the entire day, but the team finally merged into Voltron in order to dismantle the Galra structure.

Thankfully, the decommissioned outpost didn’t seem to have many tricks up its sleeve. Nothing activated or went off as they were deconstructing the place, allowing the team to bring a decent amount of tech back to the castle. Once the collected parts were back on the ship, placed in the hangar for temporary storage, everyone began docking their lions to finally wrap the mission up. That’s when Lance heard a faint, high-pitched beeping, coming from somewhere near Red’s docking station. He could feel Red’s uneasiness seeping into their mental link, too. It wasn’t until the beeping got louder and faster that he realized it was coming from one of the structures they’d brought aboard, one tucked away in their corner of the hangar. Lance gasped, unsure of what the beeping could possibly indicate but definitely sure that it was nothing good, suddenly pulling on Red’s controls and standing her up to rush over to the beeping and try to dispose of it.

Allura _just_ launched the castle-ship into a wormhole jump when she let out a shocked cry in response to the castle shaking violently along with the deafening rumble of an explosion. “There was a detonation in the hangar!” Coran reported while alarms blared all around them. He frantically worked the controls, desperately trying to assess the situation. Down in the hangar, Hunk used Yellow’s bulk to shield Blue and Green from the suction of the vacuum now pulling on them from the huge hole the explosion created. Shiro managed to dig Black’s claws into the floor to keep her grounded. They all watched, horrified, as Red went hurdling out with the bulk of the Galra tech into the tail of the wormhole, flung off to some far corner of space. Allura did her best to land the castle back on Arus as quickly as possible.

“We have to go after Lance!” barked Hunk as he came running onto the bridge with the others. “He fell outside the wormhole! He could be anywhere! Allura, you’re connected to our lions, right? You can find him? We have to go get him!”

“That’s a big fat negative,” Coran interjected. “We can’t go anywhere with the hangar damaged this extensively. Lance will have to wait until we can get repairs finished.”

“What about Lance?” Everyone turned around to see Keith standing at the doorway. His eyes scanned the assembled members of the team. “Where’s Lance? What happened?”

“Keith,” Shiro breathed, his forehead creasing with stress as he looked over towards the door. He knew he’d have to talk to Keith about this, but he was hoping they could have gotten a plan of action together first so he could at least try and comfort the boy with that. Instead, all he had was the truth. “He… While we were traveling back through the wormhole from our mission, one of the salvaged parts we brought with us self-destructed. Lance and Red got thrown out of the ship by the explosion. And now… well, we won’t know where he landed until Allura can locate him, or until he manages to get a message to us,” he said, softly and honestly.

All the color drained from Keith’s face and a cold sweat sprung up on the back of his neck. “You don’t know where he is?” He felt like he was going to puke. “What do you mean you don’t know where he is? How did this happen? Why were there salvaged parts on the ship in the first place?”

Hunk pressed his index fingers together guiltily. “We thought having spare parts would come in handy.”

Keith’s expression instantly darkened into a hateful scowl. “No, _Pidge_ thought having spare parts would be a good idea. Who else is tech-greedy enough to not realize how _stupid_ it is to bring Galra tech onboard the ship?”

“Hey! This isn’t my fault!” Pidge argued, fixing her glasses and puffing out her chest. “How was I supposed to know the cannon would self-destruct? It was an accident!”

Keith strode forward and suddenly grabbed her chest plate, yanking her forward until they were centimetres apart from each other. “The _fuck_ this isn’t your fault, you selfish little magpie. It should be you out there instead of Lance!”

“Whoa, whoa, Keith!” Shiro said, his voice immediately raising with alarm as he came between them, putting hands on both of their chests and pushing them away from each other. “I know you’re upset, but don’t say things like that. We all need to work together to find Lance.”

“Coran, how long until we can finish repairing the hangar?” Hunk asked.

“Right, according to my calculations, after procuring the right parts and then the actual labor… we’re looking at a few weeks. Three or four weeks tops.”

Keith pushed Shiro away and then started marching towards the doorway. “Lance can’t wait that long. Red barely has life support systems for one month. I’m taking a cruiser to look for him myself.”

“You can’t!” Allura gasped, drawing her eyebrows together. “You remember what happened last time, don’t you?”

“She’s right, Keith. And you’re pregnant on top of everything,” Shiro said, now positioning himself between Keith and the exit. “If you go out looking for him without any clues as to where he landed, we’re just going to end up with _two _people who are lost and on a ticking clock. And yours will be significantly shorter than his.”

“You don’t understand!” Keith growled. “I _need_ him _here!_”

“We all need him here, Keith. We understand how you feel,” Pidge said, trying to salvage their squabble from a minute ago. “Red is part of Voltron and Lance is part of our family. We all want him back with us as badly as you do.”

“None of you understand!” Keith snarled, suddenly revealing his much sharper teeth. “He’s _my_ family! He’s the sire of _my_ kits! He’s _my_ mate! I can’t do any of this without Lance! He promised me he’d never leave and now he’s not only gone, but none of you have _any clue_ as to where he is in the _entire universe!_”

“Keith,” Shiro pleaded again, closing the gap between them with his hands up, placing them on Keith’s shoulders and trying to get him to stay steady and calm. “You’re right, okay? You’re absolutely right that you need him back more than anybody and we don’t fully get what you’re going through. But getting angry at us or running off alone isn’t going to bring him back, okay? Please just try and think this through.”

Keith growled under his breath. He smacked away Shiro’s hands before storming off the bridge. “Don’t fret,” Coran assured everyone. “I locked down the cruiser bay. Even if Keith tries to leave, he won’t get very far. In the meantime, we need to get to work fixing the lion hangar. Pidge, I know y’had your heart set on salvaging all that Galra tech, but now we have to sell what’s left to a scrap yard for money.”

Pidge put on her best puppy dog eyes. “After everything we’ve been through, can’t I keep what didn’t get sucked out into space? We could learn so much even from the parts we managed to save.”

“Tut, tut, it’s a sacrifice you’re going to have to make. You and Matt are in charge of getting top dollar for those parts. Hunk, you’re with me inspecting the damage and putting a repair schematic together. Princess Allura and Shiro, do your best to track Lance’s whereabouts. Hopefully we can at least monitor his movements.”

“Right,” Allura and Shiro said in unison, followed by Shiro letting out a long, worried breath and looking down the hall after Keith. This was going to be a long few weeks.


End file.
